Or both?

I almost called this post “Cute or Gross,” in the style of Cute Overload‘s Cute or Sad feature.  But then I thought, there’s virtually no context within which I’d call a spider cute.

Yep, I said spider.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a fan of spiders.  In fact, I’ve been terrified of them for most of my life.  RD Husband has accused me of passing on my fear to our boys, so I try to go out of my way to be super nonchalant and chill when both kids and spiders are involved.

The three-year-old and I were out on the playset yesterday, and it was pretty much riddled with spiders and webs.  There was a massive one literally covering the entire opening from the playhouse to the slide.  I did my best casual, “hey, look at these cool webs!”  And then, we really found a cool one.  Not only was it still inhabited, I’m pretty sure the owner was in the middle of breakfast.

We actually saw it spinning some web around the prey; it used its back legs and spun the bug it had captured around and, I think, covered it with more web.

When I showed this spider to the three-year-old, I told him to come closer to look.  He wisely replied, “Not TOO close.”  But he was interested.  So depending on your perspective, this was either a parenting fail since I’ve passed on some of my fear of spiders, or a parenting win since I’m trying to help them appreciate these buggers.  From a distance.  I’ll let you decide.

Please also decide whether this post is cool or gross.

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