God's little creatures......do I have to touch it?
By mckenziemom
@mckenziemom (523)
United States
March 17, 2007 12:05pm CST
It was very important to me when I became a parent that I not transfer any irriational fears to my children. The most irrational fear I probably have had in my life is my fear of snakes. My fear of snakes definitley came from my mom. She could not even look at cartoon snakes when I was a kid she would totally flip out. It was funny when I was a kid my father would tell her to calm herself because she would make me afraid of them too..well that didn't happen and when she flipped out so did I!!
Now that we live in the country, we have all kinds of "critters" out here on the property. My oldest daughter I have nicknamed "nature girl" because she loves all animals big and small. She has started bringing bugs into the house and asking me questions about them. I always look what she has in her hands with a little apprehension (Ok, sometimes a lot) but I have managed to put on a brave face.....until yesterday1!! This time of year is when the garter snakes reappear and I saw 2 of them yesterday. Unlike last year, I was not by myself when I saw the first one. (I allow myself one freak out a year!!) I was closing the gate to the property when I saw him(mr. garter snake)I jumped and my brave 5 old son came running to see what was the matter. After pointing out the snake and telling him what kind and that they were harmless he ran to get "nature girl" I went into the house to recover and they stayed by the gate to watch the first of many snakes we will see this year. I suppose I don't always have to be brave!!
Do you have any similar stories to share? Do snakes freak or another critter freak you out too? Can you always be brave for the kid's sake?
4 people like this
13 responses
@sidoney (1033)
• Jamaica
17 Mar 07
thats the same thing i have been saying I dont want my child to be afraid of reptiles and amphibians I try to tell my little brother that they wont hurt him and he can play with them but i am so afraid of them its weir you know they wont harm you but still you have fear crazy i know i hate to see people kill them though as i see them as harmless just creepy i love to climb trees but if i should see a lizard i'm out in a flash
2 people like this
@mckenziemom (523)
• United States
17 Mar 07
Yeah, I think my climbing tree days are a over..just for that reason!! However,climbing trees is one of my middle child's favorite new pastimes. This summer should be interesting!!
1 person likes this
@c2adams2 (351)
• United States
17 Mar 07
Been there! I am arachnaphobic to the point of obsession. I cannot even see a spider without freaking out, and I cannot get close enough to kill them. Unfortunately, we had a double problem. For some reason we had an infestation of brown recluse spiders (highly deadly!) in our back yard and, before we could get the exterminator here, my son took off across the yard, running to their nest. Well, needless to say I completely freaked out about it! It took a year to get him to the point where he could look at a spider without running to hide. Talk about feeling like a bad mom!
@KrisNY (7590)
• United States
18 Mar 07
This sounds like our family. My sig. other is deathly afraid of snakes.. His dad is also-- He has 2 brothers- out of the 3 of them 2 are very afraid.. It is so bad that when there is a snake on tv my sig. other changes the channel. So anyways I didn't want my daughter to have this fear. Sure I wanted her to stay clear of snakes but not to be so afraid that she couldn't watch them on tv. She is afraid of them- He got the better of her- She can watch them on tv though- Isn't it funny how our kids sense our fears?
@aravindganesh79 (140)
• India
18 Mar 07
As far as i know, no snakes will attack untill we push them to do so.Snakes are great creatures of god,so dont hate them.For the kids we have to be cautious because they will touch them and snakes will bite them for there self protection...so all the creature in this world had the rights to live.....
@dfinster (3528)
• United States
18 Mar 07
I live in the country too. My 8 year old daughter loves to have frogs, salamanders basically anything she can find as little pets. We have a dog and a cat, but she seems to prefer the things that give mom a heartattack. I was laying out in the sun by the pool a few years ago,(minding my own business) my eyes were closed and I was just relaxing. My daughter walked up next to me and told me to hold out my hand. I thought she had brought me a soda so I put my hand out. It definately wasn't a soda, it was a huge ugly toad that she found in the backyard. I've never come so close to wetting my pants in my whole life, the frog went flying into the pool and she had no idea why I didn't like her "nice" present that she found for me.LOL!
1 person likes this
@mckenziemom (523)
• United States
24 Mar 07
Your daughter sounds like my daughter, Mariah!! I am so glad that she loves animals..I am just so afraid to see what she is gonna bring me from outside every day!!
@LittleMel (8742)
• Canada
17 Mar 07
I don't have kids yet, but when I live with my parents in my homeland, my mom used to take my young nephew to stay a day or two. He is always hungry and one curious boy and I always managed to act tough around him.
One day there was this puppeteer passed by our house and my mom called him because my nephew wanted to see what he carried around for street show. He has a monkey on his shoulder and a bag. When he opened his bag, a huge black snake slided out from the bag and moved right towards me. I screamed and just fainted! My mom said the snake was friendly and once I screamed, it just went back to the bag as if I scared it! EEwww goodness I don't care if I scared it or not, it definitely scared me! LOL now my nephew knows I'm not that tough!
2 people like this
@men82in (1268)
• India
18 Mar 07
It is the common phenomenasuch as fears of you. Also this sort of fear might be due to you may be more orthodox . The more orthodox people are commonly less hardshipmen, It's my view be appologise. such orthodox men aight fell with cancer due their fears of bugs and creatures. Reason why they will use more anteseptics and odour acids and phenyles to be clean to avoid bugs and little creatures. They must to remember we the human also a small creature that the nature can do anything to humans.
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
17 Mar 07
Well, I can't say my "phobia" has worn off on my children, and I have never been able to hide it from me. Those crawly things with 8 legs that starts with an "s". My kids all love tormenting me with the real things or just making me think there is one. From what I've seen, none of the 4 are afraid of them and never have been.
@Abbyey (760)
• Philippines
18 Mar 07
i dont have a kid yet but i have WONDERFUL NIECE. I am not afraid of snakes but more afraid of flying cockroaches (i guess the thought of them flying on me just FREAKS ME OUT). For other critters i can be brave for my niece and to show her that im brave and not afraid of them so that she will also be brave to face them. BUT LIKE YOU, its true that there are times when I REALLY CANT BE BRAVE NO MATTER HOW HARD I TRY... I will FLIP OUT when i see a flying cockroach. So some its like "NO BIG DEAL" but to me... ITS EXTREME... i guess everyone has fears though we should LEARN to face our fears. Maybe for me its not yet the right time... but for my niece i will tell her not to be afraid and be courageous. She at the moment isnt afraid much of anything instead she's more curious about everything... :P
@askguru (96)
• India
18 Mar 07
According to me it depends on parents to parents, my mom is very scared of snakes and rats,if sombody carry a rats and come near to my mom she will faint and loose her control. But she never told us to scared of rats and snakes and thats why i dont have any problems when i see this kind of critters or crawlers. But somehow my mom is very brave eventhough she is very scared of this things she will atleast try to stop or kill them infront of us. Thats why i like her and she's the coolest mom on earth
1 person likes this
@evalowrain (32)
• United States
18 Mar 07
Centipedes, snakes, spiders, ticks, cockroaches - most of the major icks bother me.
I do not, however, consider fear of snakes irrational. Some of those dudes are poisonous and they're all wild!
@elijahalcantara (84)
• Philippines
18 Mar 07
I wasn't very fond of greasy, slimy critters that crawl around where I walked... among them are earthworms, maggots, big spiders (small ones are ok), leeches, slugs and many other worm-like variety.
1 person likes this
