That Bug is Going To Eat You!!!!!!!

I took the boys to their first violin lesson here in Reno. Their teacher's studio is downtown.  Since Rinar is out of town today, I took the entire circus to the lesson.  After I dropped Raef and Zach off, I headed out with the three little ones. Amazingly enough, his studio is one block from where we visited before, the downtown park on the Truckee River.  A visit to the river seemed like an obvious time-killer for us.  

There were a lot of people down there.  They were having some kind of wine walk or something like that. It was a motley crew with lots of very interesting people.

The kids were watching the river and the dogs and the babies and having fun.  We were standing on a very busy sidewalk. And then there it was...

A very interesting bug was strolling down the middle of the sidewalk. It was gray, low-profile, with long pincers. I thought it looked interesting.  I exclaimed, "Eli, look!! Look at the bug!"

Eli tuned right into it.  He got really excited. He bent down and followed it with his finger trying to touch it.  I thought to myself that I was sure that even if he touched it, it would be fine. It did not look like a scary bug.

"DON'T TOUCH THAT BUG!!!! DON'T TOUCH THAT BUG!!! LET IT LIVE! LET IT LIVE! IT WILL BITE YOU!! DON'T TOUCH THAT BUG!!!"

No joke... a middle-aged, slightly schlozzled, frizzy-frosted blonde lady in a black tank-top screamed at the top of her lungs.  She was standing 2 feet from him.

Eli was stunned. He stood there. He didn't know what to say.  Then the frown slowly started to form and the tears welled up in his eyes.

What did I do?

I did nothing.  I held my tongue.  I wanted to go slap her upside her head or ream her a good one..  But alas, I did nothing. I quickly gathered up my children, did not say a word to her, and got away from her as fast as I could. Then I spent the next five minutes trying to console my 3 year-old son and explain to him that he did nothing wrong.

This got me thinking.  Is there some kind of endangered downtown Reno bug I don't know about. Is she some kind of expert?  She really thought he would kill the bug?  I mean, because I am sure that the bug was perfectly safe walking down the middle of a very busy sidewalk. 

{insert eyeroll here}

Are children not allowed to be children? Can't a boy just be a boy?  Aren't they supposed to play with bugs?

Maybe I will go back there and slap that lady upside the head. Either that, or I will send her my kids psychiatry bill.