First fear :(

cmsdouglas

On Wednesday we were sitting outside on the back porch (Jane's favorite place to be) when she noticed a frog.  She ran to me screaming, so she was already afraid of it.  I tried really hard, despite my own irrational fears of frogs, to show it to her and be calm about it so that she could see it and not be afraid.  Then DH started trying to get it to hop towards us.  I freaked out (like I said, irrational fears) and I think it scared DD.  Now she refuses to go out onto the back porch.  Any time I ask her if she wants to go outside, she runs away and says "fwog."  It breaks my heart because she LOVED outside.  And to make it worse, DH is not being very nice about it.  He completely blames me for making her afraid.  It sucks.

Any ideas on how to help ease her fears?

Wipz

How about you both go to the pet store and check out all the reptiles safely behind glass and then maybe look for a class on phobias.. or if you know anyone who can help you figure out what it is about them you are scared of then you could tackle your fears together ? 

Is it the feel of them, the thought of them being sticky or slimey, or eating flies or ?? figuring out the why might help you deal with it

I grew up on farms so I'm not scared of much, but I hate frickin spiders.... rats, mice, snakes, lizards.. no problem.. spiders make my skin crawl.

how about buying one of the path edgers that looks like a white picket fence and then put it around the back area and tell her you made a fence to keep the frogs off her porch so she feels ok about going out again.. and if you see a frog just calmly shoo it away and tell the naughty frog to stay off her porch.  I know crushed egg shells keeps slugs away but there is probably something frogs dont want to hop on either that you could put down... keep them at bay without hurting them... try google?

cmsdouglas

It's not a phobia or anything.  In fact, I was doing a really good job of showing Jane the frog and pointing it out to her calmly and even excitedly until DH decided to shoo it towards me.  Then I ran away.  

We watched a Magic School Bus episode about frogs today, and I do like the idea of finding some frogs behind glass somewhere - maybe we can take a trip to the zoo.  It's only the third time I've actually seen a frog in our yard since we moved here in June, so it's not a common occurrence.  I'm hoping she'll realize that the frog isn't there every time we go outside.

On the bright side, she has learned a new word!  

Me:  "Jane, do you want to go outside?"

Jane:  "Fwog."  Backing away from the door...

[Deleted User]

Aww, at least that is a pretty cute new word. I like the idea of putting up the fence to "keep out the frogs". Also, maybe you can go out to the front yard, or the park instead for awhile, and she'll eventually forget about it?