Stradbroke Christmas 2013
Sammy was scared of the crabs. He had it in his mind that they have claws. And they could nip him real bad.
Totally emotional response. Totally not founded on fact, right?
Caloundra 2015
Sammy was still scared of the crabs.
And then, Sammy was not scared anymore.
I don't know exactly what changed.
Was it the amount of these we found together around the rocks?
Was it how these hermit crabs were smaller than the other ones?
Was it that I casually caught them, and these critters were so timid they hid in their shells?
The part of our brain capable of emotion and movement get wired in first. And then in later years, the frontal cortex wire in later.
So if a child is particularly emotional at the time, they may associate a particular negative event with something else totally unrelated.
Given the severity or stickiness of that emotion, the experience may be burnt into a child's mind, well into adulthood in some cases.
This is a reminder to me as a parent to not thrust our logical understanding of the world and expect the child to perceive it in the same way.
How isolated and confused must Sam have been when I told him to "Harden up! It won't bite!" all those times.
Sorry Sam.
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