‘She literally clutched her pearls’: Toddler instantly ages into an old lady when she’s startled by a giant ant

In every way that matters, the depth of children’s personalities is matched only by the curiosity that powers their adventures. But sometimes, kids have their sense of self locked down right from the get-go, and in the case of Kyle Winther’s daughter, it’s absolutely charming:

Distributed by TikTok‘s @pubity, the little girl in question was enjoying a nice little jaunt around the playground when she was accosted by an enormous, anatomically-informative photo of an ant. She promptly greeted the ant with a wail before freezing up, shaking at the sight of such a gruesome image before wrapping herself up in her cardigan like an old lady would. All that was missing was the utterance of a “Great heavens! Well, I never!”

The little girl broke the illusion shortly after by toddling briskly over to her mother for a hug, presumably in hopes of regaining the innocence she lost from happening upon such an offensive image. A fear of insects is no great rarity in any human of any age, but there’s something to be said about a fear that’s capable of activating a toddler’s grandma instincts.

Nevertheless, this was a good first step in helping this little girl overcome such a fear. According to the Cincinnati Children’s Blog, education on the topic of insects is a great tool for managing anxieties around them. This can include talking about them, reading about them, observing them safely in the wild, or taking a look at a giant drawing that has all the body parts of an insect labeled. The latter example, in spite of how much the experience seems to have aged this little girl.

One other tactic the blog recommends is positive self-talk, which in this case means inviting the child to consider who is bigger and stronger between them or the bug. In this case, the bug actually was bigger than the little girl, and probably a good bit stronger as well if such giant ants conform to the body-weight ratios that an ant’s strength is so often measured by. And unfortunately, there’s no rulebook for inviting the child to consider who exists more between themselves and the giant ant; at the very least, they should probably learn the alphabet before confronting their first existential crisis.

But hey, there’s no rulebook for any aspect of parenting, and sometimes we all just have to dive in and see what happens, even if that means inadvertently transforming your daughter into a senior citizen.