![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
Let's see....
Yesterday we went to the zoo, and she enjoyed the polar bear... right up until it swam VERY close up against the wall of the enclosure. Well, Ana had just asked if polar bears eat people, and I'd just replied with my standard line of "most animals think people taste yucky, but we always are careful around wild animals, especially ones larger than us, because they CAN hurt us", and Evangeline totally freaked out.
But, to give her her credit, she was very calm about her freaking out, thus enabling me to drag Ana away from the bear. And as I told the two of them, it's perfectly sensible to be cautious or scared of bears!
Today, Evangeline misplaced her superduck towel. "MAH SUPADUCK IS MISSING! WHERE IS IT?" Silly me, I thought to ask her "Well, where did you have it last?" The answer? "ON MAH HEAD, CONNIE!"
Indeed.
Yesterday we went to the zoo, and she enjoyed the polar bear... right up until it swam VERY close up against the wall of the enclosure. Well, Ana had just asked if polar bears eat people, and I'd just replied with my standard line of "most animals think people taste yucky, but we always are careful around wild animals, especially ones larger than us, because they CAN hurt us", and Evangeline totally freaked out.
But, to give her her credit, she was very calm about her freaking out, thus enabling me to drag Ana away from the bear. And as I told the two of them, it's perfectly sensible to be cautious or scared of bears!
Today, Evangeline misplaced her superduck towel. "MAH SUPADUCK IS MISSING! WHERE IS IT?" Silly me, I thought to ask her "Well, where did you have it last?" The answer? "ON MAH HEAD, CONNIE!"
Indeed.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-21 05:07 am (UTC)A thing that occurred to me a couple days ago: there's probably a hundred movies that have a big scary beastie smashing its way out of the supposedly-unbreakable cage or whatever that it's in. It's very rare in real life for zoo animals to escape, but it's a classic plot-element of fiction.
Probably because the part of us that gets scared is a lot smarter in some ways than our rational minds. Sure, bears behind glass are safe - but normally, one avoids bears like all fuck. At least, if you want to live, that is.
So perhaps it might help to explain to her that there's no way the bear can get through the glass, and maybe also that the bear doesn't want to eat her because he gets all he needs of food that he likes much better.
Or it might help to just not pay the $11 admission for a while and hang out somewhere other than the zoo until she largely forgets about it. By and large, I'd rather she is afraid of bears than that she's *not*, y'know? Not that bears are a huge risk in NYC, but just in case...!