May 6, 2002
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Fright.
My child has gone from being fearless and foolhardy to a whimpering clinging mess in the space of a month. From a developmental standpoint, it’s become a hobby of mine to figure how such a fear took root:
The dark. (This one, I get. I am not so keen on the dark – but then I read newspapers and watch the news and occasionally Arnie Schwartzenegger movies. What I don’t get is how a child who’s had nothing but Spot and Ernie and Bert stories read to her, gets to be afraid of the dark?)
The vacuum cleaner. (cool. Mama is scared of it too. Perhaps if I used it more often, she wouldn’t assume that the end of the world is coming everytime I switch it on. I tend to hurl things out of the way while pushing it furiously and glancing at my watch in a sheer panic.)
House flies. (a big problem here in Australia, as they are the national animal.)
The dog. (to the dog’s eternal disapointment, Mouse will not go outside if the dog is anywhere in sight. You can see the dog go limp with chagrin as Mouser resolutely refuses to play ‘slobber stick’)
Elephants. (this stems from an illadvised trip to the Australian Museum where they had a full scale elephant skeleton on display. Okay, it DID look big – but what on earth did she think it was, and why is whatever she thought BAD?)
Fish. (she refuses to look at them in fishtanks. Or in the front window of the local fish monger. And I have not one clue when and why this fear happened. My only suspicion is that dreadful Rainbow Fish book/cartoon/money sucker. Maybe she doesn’t like the thought of living under the sea, and fish with eyelashes. Fair enough, me neither).
and last but not least:
Cartoons. (this is due to me being a slack exhausted mama and popping in The Lion King for her one rainy day. Silly me, I thought it was ‘G’ rated and therefore innocuous. Too bad about the DADDY LION FALLING DOWN A CLIFF AND GETTING TRANPLED BY A HERD OF WILDEBEAST!! C’mere Mr. Disney, you can sit up with my 2 year old and explain why every cute big eyed cartoon animal in your video is weeping and what exactly happened to the daddy. And remember, she’s TWO so keep it simple. Yeah right, hold that little guy HIGH over the cliff – I’ve had to hide the cover from Mouse. Yet another reason to hate Disney.
…it’s becoming tough to be the one with all the answers. Especially since I have things I am afraid of as well:
Big trucks. Specifically, with pornographic mudflaps and drivers with Elvis quiffs.
Old ladies ahead of me on the bus who are unsteady on their pins and who are evincing a determination to find every last coin in the bottom of their purse while balancing in between the doors.
Rhodesian Ridgebacks – specifically the two that live two doors down in a yard that is too small for my Kelpie and who hurl themselves against the fence everytime someone walks down ’their’ street.
Makeup salesladies. I run a mile when one of them approaches, makeup brush in hand. I take alternative routes through department stores to avoid them. Yes, I have issues. Yes, I have been ’madeover’. Yes, I looked like a television evangelist and my current look of lipstick and a swipe of mascara is all that will ever be happening. I am too scared that dumb is contagious or that I will not educate myself out of a relationship with God.
Frat boys in bars/pubs having drinking contests. Especially if it looks like they are about 19 and not too long away from their mamas.
Mullets. They scare me. Men with mullets make my ovaries wither and try to crawl into my throat. If you have a mullet – it is not cool, it makes you look like an axe murder who lives at home with mum.
Sincere earnest people. All of them, but I really avoid with panic those individuals with clipboards who veer towards me as I am coming out of a)the cinema b)the local fast food joint or c)any store where I have not got a credit card. I practice looking in my purse until I am past them – even if it means stepping directly into oncoming traffic.
Spiders, and any pest or vermin that is a) bigger than my thumb b) has more legs than I do and c) appears on a chart distributed by the local chemists with an emergency telephone number underneath.
And that’s mine. And that’s why I am useless at telling my child there is nothing to be afraid of. After all, her reasons are most likely as real and as important to her and mine are to me. Who’s to say being afraid of an elephant is any less valid that being afraid of a woman with an earnest expression waving a clipboard?
Comments (19)
oh stressmagnet, Mufasa’s death in the Lion King is up there with Bambi’s mother and I didn’t realise it til I’d put my traumatised 2/3 year old through it either! Ditto Harry Potter a few years later. sigh….goes off to inadvertently scar child in some way..
I found my self in tears recently while watching Ice Age with the kids. It affected me so badly.
I still recall being terrified of Cruella DeVille in 101 Dalmations when I was a Young Girl, so I’ve always been hesitant to let my kids watch any Disney Movies unless I screen them first. That’s one movie that i still refuse to have in my home.
I can’t watch Disney films. Every one of them has a dead or dying parent in it, and I can’t take it. Not because it scares me, but because it hurts me. Why sign up for that?
I’m scared of mullets too. They don’t allow them up here in Redneckville.
LOL!
I never knew they were called mullets! What do you think about women with them?
EEWww on mullets and spiders! I was traumatized by the evil queen in Snow White….Jake was scared of everything and my daughter is only scared of bugs, of course she can’t tell the difference betweeen a spider and a leaf, a dirt clump, a grain of rice, etc. makes for a long day some times.
I too, get a tight feeling in my throat from watching that scene in Lion King and it did occur to me while I was watching it with my kids that it was scary and how would they feel? Disney..bah. And then of course, I went about the business of hiding from my own fears and left the movie there in the shelf. I’m going to get rid of it RIGHT THIS SECOND. Great blog, as always.
OK – LMAO – Ethan’s now afraid to sleep in his “nest” (wicker loveseat in my room…about 4 feet from my side of the bed…) and wants to bunk with Thane and I. I’m sorry, but by the 3rd kid, I’m like “You’re Fine. Sleep.” He’ll probably turn out the best.
I was starteled by a rattlesnake once while walking in the desert. I still regret killing him with the shotgun I was carrying. He didn’t seem to be afraid of me.
I’m not afraid of snakes, rats, spiders, taxes, death, slime mold, the dark, hell or televangelists…I am, however, afraid of my mother.
My sister is afraid of cottonballs, so she compensates for my lack of fears.
Oh wait…AM afraid of deep water and whatever might be in it that would suck my toes.
I try so hard to convince Gaby that slugs are dangerous and scary and never to even look at one, but he is convinced that they can be domesticated and should be brought inside& played with– ugh!
My rents brought me to both Clash of the Titans and Raiders of the Lost Ark when I was in 1st grade (5/6) So, um, I don’t like snakes much. (Actually I am full of phobias. #1 is slugs.) Lion King is pretty sad. I avoid disney as much as possible. Not that I ever saw any disney movie as a child, no, they were taking me to inappropriate adult (r-rated?) movies only.
I used to have a mullet. Like Florence Henderson at the end of the Brady Bunch. :- )
Wow, all of that in only a month. It looks like you have your hands full just by not making everything a big deal so your child can move through this stage as rapidly as possible.
Steve
I am SO not worthy – wicked entry!
Did I mention you ROCK (whoops, am I epropstituting myself now?)?!!!!
i too hate frat boys. with every ounce of my being!
LMAO
Im with you on the makeup salesgirls & the dreaded ‘mullet’ hehe…my 2yo is a pretty fierceless being which is scary in itself, she chases stray animals up the street and grabs them in a stranglehold, she jumps from anything she can climb up onto (she can climb high *sighs*) and is already the neighbourhood “monkeybar queen”, SHE terrifies me
Shes also been seeing ‘ghosts’ in the house for about a year now!!! beautiful child but a bit freaky LOL
Bean is lately trying to convince me she is afraid of everything, but I think she really is only afraid of sirens, any sirens put her into a freaking, screaming frenzy. I am desperately afraid of commitment. That about covers it.
Tara is psychotically afraid of bees. She’s never been stung, but I probably never should have told her about my allergy to them. Also, I’m a paranoid freak about a LOT of things, which I have to try not to show. Makes my husband start singing, “Mama’s gonna put all her fears into you…” if I don’t keep them in check. He’s annoying.
Heck I’d be afraid of mullets too!!!
yikes!
Yeah, it is a good question..how do fears develop so quikly, my mom said I did that same thing, one day I was fearless, the next I was “shy”