Snakes & Spiders & Worms... OH MY!

OK so what is the deal with a boy's fascination with snakes & spiders?!

I am SO not into that!!

If there is one thing I hate with a passion it is spiders.......ewwwwww
I always have and I always will (unless there is an 'un-phobia' potion I can take...?)

I don't know why I am so scared of spiders - I mean, I'm a farm girl for goodness sake! Farm girls are supposed to be really into all of God's creation..... hold on.  I don't think spiders are heaven sent somehow. They're so flippin UGLY and MEAN!

So the thing that really gives me the cold sweats is the knowledge that I will inevitably have a massive spider shoved in my face to 'admire'.... How do I handle this situation when it arises without screaming and running away?
How do I teach my children that it's silly to be scared of spiders because they are probably "more scared of you" blah blah blah.

I have already been given an opportunity to show Luca that spiders are nothing to be afraid of, and I failed miserably.

It was when Luca and I were visiting New Zealand last year and we were walking through Hamilton Botanical Gardens with the family. We went down the steps into a garden area that had a lovely wee pond in it. In the pond was a stick. On the stick was a flippin massive ugly-as spider!!!
I did the only thing any sensible mother would do when faced with this situation - I screamed and ran away.
But not my brave son, oh no. Having never seen a spider before of course he was fascinated by it (and prbably thought it was beautiful!!...ewwwwwww) and so decided to pick it up. Spider jumps on his hand, Grandad Pop sees this and saw it's big fangs and so 'encouraged' Luca to put the spider back on the stick in the pond... I think he ended up flicking the spider off his hand once he saw the rather large fangs (ewwwww I'm shuddering just writing this!...)
So good thing the Grandads were there to help deal with this situation because I would have been a blubbering mess.
I was hiding at the other end of the garden behind a bush (which probably had spiders in it anyway).

And so I'm faced with this dilemma - how to not be scared of spiders so your children don't grow up with the same phobia. And don't even get me started on snakes or worms. Oh. My. Goodness.

It looks like I'm just going to have to GET OVER IT!....... Damn. Not happy about that.

Not happy about that at all.

Fortunately we are living on the 4th floor in an apartment building and I know spiders can't climb all the way up here................can they??....