In an accidental social experiment with a sample size of 1, I have concluded that children have an innate fear of cockroaches.
This morning, when L-A stepped out of my bedroom, she chanced upon one sluggish cockroach crawling along the hallway and she gave a hearty shout and scream and came running to me. She then proclaimed repeatedly, “Daddy bao bao! L-A scared!”
After the roach was exterminated, Esh and I were bemused. I would have thought that children would have no fear of anything encountered for the first time and maybe would have even picked it up to play with it (or even taste it!) Looks like there is either an instinctual fear or some subconscious social conditioning took place.