herrchook

My girls are terrified of flies. From experience, I know that the flies can be a pain in the a**e in Oz, and if the girls are bad here Oz is going to be a nightmare for them.

How did your kids cope with flies on arrival? Can anyone recommend any good children's books about "friendly" flies so I can de-sensitize them. Shouting "Chill out" works on adults but not on toddlers

Cheers

Gill

Australia_bound?

Could recommend The Fly with Jeff Goldbum in lol but would probably traumatise em lol
Not sure if there's any friendly fly apart from dead ones.
Fly situation in us varies on where you live some areas no worse than here others terrible at certain times of the year. Where you off to?

Wendy

I'm gonna have this problem with mine, she's 6. She's that bad that if she see's a bit of fluff, she screams her head off

herrchook

The Fly terrified me - gave me nightmares :scared:

We're off to either Adelaide or Melbourne.

cheers

herrchook

It's a nightmare isn't it? I just want to scream "get over it, it's a tiny fly" but I guess that'll just make them worse.

Wendy

Yes, I'm dreading it.

I don't know how to get around it. I cured her fear of moths by saying they were night butterflies. Not sure what I can compare flies to though

worzel

My daughter was stung by a bee when she was 3 and so petrified of ANYTHING small that flew in the UK. We came out here fearing she would go berserk with all the flies and ...nothing. Not bothered at all. Whether it is because there are less wasps / bees perhaps? Maybe sharks / crocs are proper scary. Maybe just a change of circumstances broke that association

NickyP

I just gave my son a fly swatter and let him squish them. Fear all gone
Nicky

Bella Donna

I thought we'd have a problem with our girl (8). She hated flies with a passion back in the UK - along with anything else that flew, especially bees, wasps and moths. As for spiders....forget it.

But she hasn't been too bad at all since we came here (Perth). She still doesn't like flying critters too much, but I think our single experience of a cockroach has convinced her that bees and moths really aren't that bad, that wasps are *keep an eye on 'em* job, and spiders can easily be removed by mum or dad. As for the flies - she still won't tolerate them near any food (which is fine as I won't either) but now she just points them out and tells me to kill them.

Which I'm only too happy to do - she gets her pathological hatred of them off me, although I just like killing the buggers....

Sian & Paul

I'd never noticed our two toddlers have any particular problem with flies etc in the UK but they totally freaked out when we got here. They couldn't get over the fact that the flies were so persistent and actually have the nerve to land on you. Our girl (2 and a half) was much worse that our boy who's just 4. But they got over it in a couple of days. By which I mean, I think they just kind of gave up resisting and accepted them. Also realized they weren't going to hurt them so just annoying little critters to be tolerated. As for books, what about building up the "we like bugs" bit with the "Miss Spider" books - they've got wasp, bee characters in - not sure about a fly but possibly?

Like the fly swatter idea though - think I will invest for when flies return!!

Sian

cranni

Oh dear, and the flies are awful around Xmas.
My mum swallowed one.
But they are docile,and so easy to swat, buy them the fly swats, and they will have great fun killing them, well my kids do.
Denise

Wendy

She'll be right. She isn't as bad as she used to be.

I can usually take her mind off things with an ice cream

kevinbloomfield

March flies aren't docile, the buggers land on you and you don't know until they bite. They aren't very quick though and you can swat them with your hand

Australia_bound?

Well Melbourne isn;t that bad most of the year no worse than here apart from summer time...Adelaide can get quite bad in summer

Hels

So you guys arent considering Bendigo any more then???