Whether rational or irrational, do you have any fears? heights, rats, dogs, flying, water, etc?

Well, I worry all the time about my son's safety. But I know that is just a parent thing.

My irrational fear is my dog getting loose. He did get loose six months after I had him, in winter, and was gone for 23 hours. And it seems I am getting worse instead of better about worrying about it when I leave the house. I have to see him, be the person to lock the doors....I am so odd about it.

Snakes, big spiders, heights, not so much the heights but the idea of falling from them, I fell a lot as a kid but these days I worry more about it. And, if you want to talk irrational, even for being 21 and an adult, I still worry about saying things that will upset my mother because she's very weird, from other people she will take a lot of crap but sometimes, depending on the subject, it takes very little from me to offend her and she goes into 'oh, WELL!' and 'nevermind, I'll just do it myself'. I think using guilt on your kids is worse than hitting them.

Supernova wrote:

Snakes, big spiders, heights, not so much the heights but the idea of falling from them, I fell a lot as a kid but these days I worry more about it. And, if you want to talk irrational, even for being 21 and an adult, I still worry about saying things that will upset my mother because she's very weird, from other people she will take a lot of crap but sometimes, depending on the subject, it takes very little from me to offend her and she goes into 'oh, WELL!' and 'nevermind, I'll just do it myself'. I think using guilt on your kids is worse than hitting them.

Super, the thing about parents is that we never outgrow that odd connection on worrying about what we do that upsets them. I know many transcend it, but many of us don't and I am one of them. My dad has done more things than I would ever talk about here, though I have said things about several of his lesser faults, and at 34, I still worry about his thoughts on my life choices. Once you are living on your own, that day to day stuff will be much less to you because you won't live it all the time. She still may come to your home and criticize, but it really becomes easier to take once you are out on your own.

Well, and that brings me to another thing that I think about, irrational or otherwise...I was the baby of the family and my mother was 39 when she had me, so she's 61 now, and though her mother and my other grandmother obviously have longevity in their veins, I worry about how much time I might have left with her.

It surprised me when a week or so back she was talking about feeling guilty that she didn't have the energy to do the things with us she did with my older sisters, and how easier it would be if she were just 40 now instead of in her 60s. My mother's the most important person in the world to me, and even though I'm sure she'll live to her 90s or so, I still feel cheated because I'm the end of the line, my sisters had 20 years on them with her by the time I came around. Of course, my sisters were not around as much as I have been with her so I suppose it evens out, they both married young to get away from home and everything else, I'm 21 and am still at home with her and have no plans to marry, certainly none in the immediate future.

Mom was late 30's when she had me too. I know she was either 37 or 38. Don't worry about what you do with your mom vs. what your older siblings did....the mom you have is the one you were given and she is who she is to you...there are pluses and minuses to her age with you as a young lady vs. your siblings. But each is unique. I suspect that in 10 years, when your mom is still alive and you haven't lived there in years, your siblings will be a tad envious that you knew her best in her older years.

Oh, I forgot another fear I have, crickets. I don't mind them in general but I HATE finding any in the basement, and even the dead ones I don't want to be ANYWHERE near...that all goes back over 10 years, one time I was down in the basement and there was one down there, and it died, and it had a long parasitic worm in it that came out of it, and I was freaked out, went up to get my brother because I figured he could handle it, he came up and got my mom. In containing it until my father got home, somehow they got it locked up in my brother's plastic globe, and in only a few minutes that worm had grown out several feet long. I've never forgotten it and I don't want to be anywhere near another cricket, dead or alive.

Supernova wrote:

Oh, I forgot another fear I have, crickets. I don't mind them in general but I HATE finding any in the basement, and even the dead ones I don't want to be ANYWHERE near...that all goes back over 10 years, one time I was down in the basement and there was one down there, and it died, and it had a long parasitic worm in it that came out of it, and I was freaked out, went up to get my brother because I figured he could handle it, he came up and got my mom. In containing it until my father got home, somehow they got it locked up in my brother's plastic globe, and in only a few minutes that worm had grown out several feet long. I've never forgotten it and I don't want to be anywhere near another cricket, dead or alive.

I would have been more afraid of the worm! lol

my mom was 35 when she had me. She's in her 70s and quite healthy. I've been told by my older sisters that they "prepped" her for me, and that she mellowed in her old age. i do remember the fear we all had of her... she never hit us, would just count. We would act up and throw things, blast stereos, but never let her get to three. One day she had too much and from behind the paper came the roar of the pit of hell "TTTHHHREEEE" - no one, no two, just the ever abominable three! We all stopped in our tracks and looked at her, then ran upstairs to the bedroom and hit under the covers! lol

No phobias. Just psychoses.

Dying young.

wants2laugh wrote:

Supernova wrote:

Oh, I forgot another fear I have, crickets. I don't mind them in general but I HATE finding any in the basement, and even the dead ones I don't want to be ANYWHERE near...that all goes back over 10 years, one time I was down in the basement and there was one down there, and it died, and it had a long parasitic worm in it that came out of it, and I was freaked out, went up to get my brother because I figured he could handle it, he came up and got my mom. In containing it until my father got home, somehow they got it locked up in my brother's plastic globe, and in only a few minutes that worm had grown out several feet long. I've never forgotten it and I don't want to be anywhere near another cricket, dead or alive.

I would have been more afraid of the worm! lol

Well that's the thing, until the cricket died that thing stayed inside of it, so how could you tell if it'll ever happen again with another one you find? That's why I can't stand being near them, on the offchance that it could happen again.

I'm totally Arachnophobia and I don't like snakes, either - not a big fan of reptiles or most creepy crawlers, actually.

Alan Smithee wrote:

No phobias. Just psychoses.