Anyways. The Bay. The Bay and ... a snake. No joke. As soon as we descended the stairs, I heard Jessie say, "Oh my gosh." Then Wendi said, "Oh my gosh." Then we decided to leave the premises. A snake. The third snake I have run into in as many years.
Later that evening while talking to JB, I brought up the snake.
"What'd it look like?" he asked.
I knew he would ask. And I had tried, as I backed up with one boy in my arms and the other by the hand, to photograph the snake in my memory so I could relate the information to my husband when he would inevitably ask later. But something about being afraid and protecting my sons seems to make the coloring of a snake a little less important in the big scheme of things.
"I'm not sure. I think it was brown," I said in reply.
"Like brown stripes or dark brown or brown splotches?"
I wrinkled my nose and turned and asked Jessie what she thought. "Splotches?" she said, more asking then saying.
John signed. "What about the tail. What did it look like?"
I sighed back. "Ummm . . . give me some choices?"
"Did it have a rattle?"
"No. That I know. No rattle," I said excitedly. "But actually that's all I know because he was lying on his tail I think."
"Was he thick or thin?"
"Thin?" Again my answer was more question than statement and so, at this, John gave up trying to determine what kind of snake it was. "Anyways," I said. "Don't you think I did the right thing?"
"The right thing?" John asked.
"Yeah. I mean, when I see a snake I should immediately remove everyone from the area, right?"I heard JB pause. A pause? I mean this is a snake? How could I have done the wrong thing? "John?"
"Well," he said. "Actually, the right thing would be being able to distinguish what kind of snake it was so that if it is not poisonous, you could show it to the boys so that they develop an appreciation of snakes and not a fear."
That was word for word. No exaggeration there at all. And folks ... he was serious. Dead serious. I should learn how to identify snakes so as to teach my sons. I should not necessarily retreat.
The truth? I am not deathly afraid of snakes. We used to have four of them. Two milk snakes and two corn snakes when we were first married. Each set had an albino which JB was using to work on some experiment with dominant and recessive traits. I named them: Cheetah, Bonita, Pongo, and Perdita. This irritated JB as he said you don't name reptiles. I'm not sure who decided that, but it became a running annoyance for me to call them by name and for him to tell whoever we were talking to that they, in fact, did not have names. We eventually sold them when our lifestyle indicated that keeping them around wouldn't be feasible. But while we had them, I would hold them while JB was cleaning out the cages. I wasn't afraid of them. Not at all. They weren't poisonous. They didn't bite. Heck our first lovebird would do more damage than Cheeta, Bonita, Pongo, or Perdita.
But still? A snake on the beach?
I think not.
Even if I thought I knew what it was, what if I was wrong?
Sigh . . . further proof that there are some differences in marriage that will never be bridged by all the respect in the world. JB can name his snakes and identify them.
I, on the other hand, will walk away. Don't you agree?
8 comments:
Yep, I cannot stand snakes and will not only walk the other way, walk another direction even if it is out of the way. Raised on a farm around a lot of wildlife including snakes that almost took my foot off as I was backing up to avoid one snake another was right behind me. My father took a stone from across the pond and threw it hitting the snake dead on in the neck and killing it. I think he amazed himself but I was more terrified than anything else, it was huge and poised to strike. No snakes for me thanks! EVER!
We have black rat snakes that like to hang on our doors and windows, as well as Copperheads. I don't care if they aren't dangerous black rat snakes just give me the creeps.
Thankfully the neighborhood cat takes them on for me. :) Love that cat!
I'm with you! I would walk away
I'm with you Wendi. I'm glad we didn't see it when we went or you would have seen me RUNNING from it. :)- Jaime
I'll ride the fence on this one. Considering the kids ages, I agree to just walk away, but once they are four or five I would totally use it as a teachable moment.
Love you, AD
Yes! RUN away! =)
Vic and John must be twins separated at birth! Seriously. We have agreed that Vic can use those "teachable moments" and I will just walk away. I am not afraid of snakes either and I am pretty good at identifying whether or not it is poisionous, but like you said, what if I'm wrong? I'll take time to point out flowers, trees, birds and bugs, but snakes are all up to Vic.
From my perspective, what I try to teach to kids (and adults) is that you don't have to like snakes (or any animal or creepy-crawly), so long as you can appreciate and respect their place and purpose in nature that God created.
Without snakes, we would be over-run with rodents! Although there are other animals that eat rats and mice, snakes have the ability to get down into the mice and rat dens and eliminate the babies at the source, which those other predators can't do. Without this occuring (and taking into consideration the reproductive rates of rats and mice), again, we would be over-run!
It is always safer to walk away or view from a safe distance (especially because your kids are so young), but when the kids get older, you could use it as a teachable moment - or even just practice observation skills from a safe distance and make it a point to look up the snake later with the kids.
I think the point is that so long as you're not giving the kids a reason to think that nature or animals should be feared, I think you can handle snakes however you feel comfortable.
Trust me - I am not trying to sound "holier than thou" because I jump and scream with cockroaches. I'm still trying to find out what their purpose is so that I can respect them!!! I really hope that I can find that reason before I have kids so I don't pass that onto them!
Kelli, John said he totally agrees with you on cockroaches! He said they are there so that someone will be there if there is nuclear war.
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