Pet Snakes : Fearful due to Little Exposure to them?
Food for thought:
Often, one is fearful of something because there is little or no exposure to it?
…
A few weeks ago, we had this encounter with 3 snakes.
(No, they’re not ours. They belong to someone else =)
I was a little scared of them at first. I mean, snakes are not something that we often see and touch in real life! The kids refused to be near them too at first.
After some 15 minutes, we were all okay with these creatures (they are tame and gentle-natured pet snakes, btw)
Vai and Brie especially enjoyed the interactions and loved the scaly creatures! (Anya was okay with them too, just not as excited as her siblings =)
Ah, if only I could feel the same way towards house lizards! (I have this unreasonable phobia against house lizards. Boo!)
What I personally learned from this:
– Positive exposure and good knowledge about something could lead to positive experience, which then leads to a change of mindset and feeling towards that ‘something’.
– City kids tend to be afraid of such animals (ie. Unusual pets and creatures) because of their little exposure to nature and creatures.
I personally feel that it is not a surprise too if city kids (and adults) tend to want to harm / bully such creatures (eg. Insects, etc) upon seeing them. Which is sad, actually, and should really be deterred.
eg. Kids spotted a ladybug in the garden and wanted to squash it. Boys saw a butterfly on a wall, and threw paper and pebbles towards it. Using real animals during games (eg. ‘who could handle slippery eels for the longest time’) and throwing them around for fun.
I mean, I personally don’t ‘love’ bugs and creatures like eels, frogs and lizards. BUT, I am against mishandling or torturing them in the name of fun (And if you want to eat it, then kill it fast)
…
Any possible solution to this?
Hmmm … where possible, try to spend more time outdoors, where we could have more interactions with nature and with God’s many creations, big and small. Really, the more we’re out there, the more we’d be in love with it =)
