If You Are A Black Widow, Don't Get Married!

My ten year old son and his buddie were talking about black widow spiders. They wanted to know why they were called black widows. I said the black part was because of their color, and the widow part was because after the woman spider makes a baby with the man spider, the woman then eats the man spider and then she becomes a widow when he dies.

Both boys were quiet, or shocked, and they decided that it was mean of her to kill the male. But, after thinking about this awhile, one of them had an idea about what the male spiders should do, or what he would do if he were a black widow spider, it went something like this:

"Ya know, if I was a black widow, I would just hang out and be friends with the girl spiders. I wouldn't marry one or have babies or anything. I would just be a black widow spider who has lots of friends who are girls and I wouldn't get married and I would say no to making babies! I think that would be the safest thing to do." Hehehe. Kids kill me.
2009 Cindy Breninger