Cranky Crab

This story is one of 80 therapeutic stories in Susan Perrow’s book ‘Healing Stories for
Challenging Behaviour’, Hawthorn Press, 2008.
A child therapist used this story with a five year old girl who was often pinching and hurting
other children. Gloves of the child’s favourite colour became a strengthening ‘prop’. After
hearing the story, the child wanted to wear the gloves and keep her pinching / hurting fingers
warm and cosy inside. The story helped the child get the message in an imaginative and fun
way, and the problem was slowly healed.
Parents, therapists and teachers could use this story theme for other aggressive behaviours,
using a different animal in place of the crab (e.g. a scratching cat).

Little crab was not very popular with the beach-boy group.
His friends were tired of him always being in a cranky mood and using his claws to
nip and hurt them.

One day, turtle decided to call a meeting to put a stop to it all.

Octopus, starfish, and seagull came along to give their ideas.

‘We should cut his claws right off’, said octopus, who was still nursing one of his
tentacles from a nasty nip last week.
‘Perhaps we should glue them together’ suggested starfish, who now had two
shorter star legs because of crab’s bad behaviour.
‘Or tie them behind crab’s back – with a very strong piece of string!’ cried seagull,
whose foot had been bitten by crab just that morning.

‘But what if we can help crab learn to stop hurting us’, said turtle, who always tried to
be the most understanding of all the beach friends.

‘That’s a very nice idea, turtle, but what do we do while he is learning?’ all the friends
cried out together. They had had enough of crab’s cranky moods. They also didn’t
believe that crab would be able to change his hurting ways.

Turtle wandered slowly backwards and forwards along the sand, thinking in his wise
turtle way. Suddenly he stopped next to a pile of seaweed. ‘I have an idea’ he
announced to the group. ‘I will knit some thick seaweed mittens for crab to wear on
his claws. These might help him learn to be more careful.’

Turtle was very excited by his idea. He went straight back to his cave in the rock pool
to get his pair of driftwood knitting needles. Meanwhile the other beach friends
reluctantly agreed to collect some long strands of seaweed. When turtle returned,
there was a big pile of seaweed ready for him, and he set to work knitting a pair of
mittens for crab to wear on his claws.

Just as he finished the second mitten, crab arrived. ‘What’s happening, guys’ asked
crab. Of course he was very curious to know what his friends had been up to all
morning!

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Susan Perrow (c) 2017
Quickly turtle said, ‘We have a present for you crab’. And he held out the mittens for
crab to try them on. Well, crab was so surprised, you could have knocked him over
with a fish eagle feather. Never before had anyone given him a gift. Straight away he
pulled the mittens on over his claws, and they fitted perfectly!

For the rest of the day the beach friends played together – with no nipping and no
hurting, just happily together. Crab’s friends could not believe it. And crab could not
believe it. You see, for crab, something else happened that day. Once his claws
were both tucked away inside the mittens, held together in a warm and cosy kind of
way, he didn’t feel as cranky as he used to feel.

Of course, when crab was hungry, he had to take his mittens off so he could hunt in
the rock pools for his dinner. But before playing with his friends again, he would
always put the mittens back over his sharp claws. The mittens seemed to help him
feel happy, and they certainly helped him be more careful.

However, seaweed mittens cannot last forever. One day the mittens were so full of
holes that they simply fell off crab’s claws and the waves washed them out to sea.
Fortunately, by this time, crab had learnt to only use his claws for hunting and eating.
He now knew how to keep them tightly closed when he was playing with his friends.

The beach friends were very impressed by how wise turtle had been. From that day
on, whenever they had a problem to sort out, they would always ask for his
suggestion. And more often than not, turtle’s idea was the best one.

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Susan Perrow (c) 2017