Fight or Flight

Nothing jumps you on edge while watching Phineas and Ferb with your son than seeing a threatening arachnid advancing towards you.

Gah! No fear, SUPER MUM is here! With a single bound she leaps into action and rolls up an old Life & Style section while simultaneously reaching for the can of insecticide (SUPER MUM, much like Elastogirl, has arms that extend way beyond human proportions. That is why she can juggle bags of groceries as well as her 15-kilo pre-schooler while exiting her vehicle.)

Spinning around, she tells her son to hold his nose so the noxious gas doesn't fill his lungs, then sprays the bejeesus outta that spider. It starts running back towards the wall so she sprays some more. Then freezes when she sees not one, not two, but 100,000 (or it could just have been 15, the adrenaline was really pumping) mini little baby spiders disperse from Mama spider's body as she struggles forward.

OMIGOD! I'd destroyed an entire family of spiders! She was probably transporting them to a safer location when she made a wrong turn somewhere!

Poor Mama Spider!

As a combatant in the jungle fray it was fight or flight mode for me. But as a fellow mum, I felt truly sorry that she who was trying to protect her children met such a fatal end. Was Papa spider wondering where his family has disappeared to? Why his little incy wincies weren't climbing up that spout again?

Alas, only a decent burial would do. So I gently scooped all their little bodies up with tissue, and ceremoniously dumped them into the bin.