Bugs

"I think I may have set you back on the bug issue." - Mrs. Packman

My wife has an irrational fear of stinging insects. OK, maybe the fear of stinging insects is not irrational, but somehow she is convinced that every bee or yellow jacket in the neighborhood exists solely for the purpose of following her around and stinging her.

One of my goals is to keep my sons from developing this same phobia.

Unlike many apartments in New York City, our current apartment has no cockroaches. It took me a little while to figure out why (obviously it had nothing to do with my great housekeeping skills), but eventually I discovered that we shared our home with a colony of House Centipedes. I'll admit that they're a little scary looking at first, but I've grown attached to them as allies in my fight against roaches.

About nine months ago, a centipede walked out onto the floor as Mrs. Packman was getting FBS ready for bed. She screamed, and FBS refused to go to bed for months until I had searched his room for bugs. He would not go into his crib until I had authoritatively pronounced, "no bugs!" Kids are impressionable that way.

Thus it was my fear that Mrs. Packman's phobia of bees would rub off on the kids. So you can imagine my enthusiasm when last Wednesday FBS' preschool was visited by "The Bee Man." This is a guy who actually keeps bees and makes honey on the roof of his Brooklyn brownstone. He brought a small hive with see-through walls into the classroom and helped the kids search for the queen bee. I was kind of sad I could not have been there to see the kids reactions.

FBS has been drawing pictures of bees and eating honey ever since. It makes me proud.