The Terrifying Giraffes at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska

“NOOOOOO!” screamed my 4 year old as I led him into our favorite Zoo. Turning and trying to run away from me he looked seriously concerned. Cringing inside as I imagined what people must be thinking, I ran to catch him, holding him tightly yet gently, trying to understand his reluctance. We had been talking about this great field trip for days, as we meandered our way from one side of the vast United States to the other.

The Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska was one of our favorite stops. We love the wide variety of animals. The RainForest and Desert habitats are so realistic and well done, we could wander in either one of those for hours. And my personal favorite, aquarium with the underwater tunnel. We call it the shark tunnel, because you enter a tunnel made entirely of glass with fish and rays and sharks swimming above and around you on all sides. It is amazing.

Trying to ignore both the judging and the pitying responses of other zoo customer’s, I crouch down to look into my little boy’s face. “We are going to go inside and see the animals. Don’t you want to see all the animals we’ve been talking about?” I had already paid the rather high admission, and with the tickets in hand ready to proceed through the entry wicket, I was stunned by this child’s response. He settled down for a moment, fooling me into thinking everything was fine. “NOT the Giraffes!” he stated emphatically, pulling me towards the parking lot again.

As the other 4 children stood by unsure how to help, I tried to wrestle this little man child as kindly and respectfully as possible into the zoo.

“I don’t want to see the giraffes. Not the giraffes.” he repeated with an ever increasing volume. I kept assuring him the giraffes were fine. They were gentle. They were in a big cage. They couldn’t hurt him. But he was insistent. NO GIRAFFES! And because I had mentioned giraffes as one of the zoo animals, he wasn’t having anything to do with the zoo either.

I tried to dialog with him a little. What about the lions? They were fine. Tigers? Sure. Elephants. Yes. The zoo trip was being ruined due to the presence of the apparently menacing and terrifying giraffes on site, somewhere.

Please don’t read me as uncompassionate. I am a highly respectful and compassionate mother. I do however, struggle with irrational unreasonableness. Finally, I picked this wailing 4 year old up, and with arms flailing as if to swim or fly away from the zoo, and onlookers giving me looks that ranged from understanding to derision, I hauled him through the gate with the other kids keeping enough distance to appear unrelated.

The record needs to state that I am also impeccably honest. To a fault. I try to never lie to my kids. We don’t even do Santa, the Easter Bunny or the tooth fairy. But I will confess, that in order to calm my very stressed child, I straight up lied and told him we would NOT go see the giraffes.

While he did relax a bit in my arms, and his verbalizing quieted, he was still wound up in tight alert mode. He looked rapidly from side to side watching for the illusive and deadly giraffes to spring out at us at any moment. I knew there was no way any of us were going to enjoy this long awaited trip to the zoo until we dealt with the giraffe fiasco.

Communicating surreptitiously with my oldest child, we figured out where the giraffe habitat was and I strode purposefully toward the hated creatures, knowing we had to get this out of the way once and for all; and quick.

As we approached the gentle giants, there was a smaller statue of a giraffe leading towards their home. I paused and pointed at the statue. “Look,” I said to my son. “Do you know what animal this is?” He did not! As I glanced beyond the statue to the giraffes in their yard, I took a chance. “This, is a statue of a giraffe.” We paused there to let that sink in a moment, and as his grip tightened around my neck, I turned his gaze towards the real giraffes. We walked towards them calmly as I narrated things about giraffes. “Aren’t they tall. They eat the leaves of trees. Look at their long necks. See how they move slowly and gently. I know they’re big but they are really kind animals. Oh my goodness, look at the baby.” By the time we reached the wall, he had relaxed and even slipped down out of my arms. “See,” I hugged him. “Giraffes are ok. They are not scary.”

By facing this deep fear of an unknown creature he was able to immediately put it behind him and thankfully we all enjoyed a lovely afternoon at our favorite zoo.

Five years later on our next trans-country trip, we again stopped to visit the Omaha zoo. We laughed kindly together remembering the last time and how he had been so afraid of the giraffes. No one laughed harder than my then 9 year old. Until, we got to the butterfly habitat. “NO! Not the butterflies he cried. I don’t want to go inside the butterfly house.”

Yes, I pressed the issue again, but this time, he was able to articulate his concerns and after a few minutes we waited calmly outside while the other kids enjoyed the beautiful fluttering insects.

For a moment however, I was back envisioning myself as the "mean mom" who had to drag her child to the zoo.

This story has been read and approved for sharing by the main character, who is no longer afraid of giraffes but still doesn't love butterflies.

If you enjoy my humorous stories here are a few more:

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The Time My Google Assistant Tried to Get Me the Wrong Date

The Oblivious Young Husband

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The rest of my unbelievable but true stories can be found HERE.

It delights me when you read and enjoy my stories. Thank you.