I was a little upset yesterday when the weather was nice, cool, and not raining. It was the first day in about a week without rain, and I wanted to go outside, play, and do some weeding. But I had meetings all afternoon and evening, so outside time had to wait.
This morning, it's pretty cloudy, but just a hint of sun coming out. I sent Paigey off to school, and as soon as baby L fell asleep, the boys and I headed outside! We decided to weed my front garden together, and after about 5 minutes, Nate said these dreaded words:
"Mom....be very careful....there's a snake next to you..."
For anyone who knows me, knows that I am bery scared of snakes. I have no reason to be; I've never been bitten or attacked. They just freak me out and I can't stand them. I apologize to my neighbors for screaming at 8 this morning because there was a snake next to me.
So, we move down a little bit. Nate decides to stand guard of the snake to protect me as Pete's not here to remove the snake from my garden, and I can work knowing that the snake is being watched. Then these dreaded words come:
"Mom! Now there's 2 snakes! One's closer to you!"
Then a minute later: "Now there's 3!"
By that time, I'm picking up all the pulled weeds and racing to put them in our weed pile because I'm freaking out too much to deal with the snakes multiplying by the second (what are they, rabbits?!?!?). As I'm coming back, the count is up to 4 snakes. Mind you, they're not doing anything but laying there, sunning themselves to warm up after it was in the mid-40's last night. But just their existence is enough to unnerve me.
I notice that I left a small pile of weeds by the garden, and I go to pick them up when Nate says the SUPER dreaded words:
"Um...Mom? One snake's missing..."
While snakes themselves are scary, a missing snake is terrifying! That's Shawna's cue to come inside immediately; the weeds can sit there for a day.
Thankfully my kids ignore my fear. They LOVE snakes. I've told them that I've tried to get over my fear, and there is no reason for me to be scared, that I'm just being silly. They love laughing at me, and during the summer Pete with take the older two down by the front gardens and they'll go on snake hunts. When they find one, they'll pick it up and carry it across the road to the small patch of woods there. It's fun for them, and I can rest easy knowing that I may not be viciously attacked when I get the mail in the afternoons :)
Do you have any irrational fears? Do your kids pick up on them and develop the same fear, or do they think you're silly? I'd love to hear that I'm not alone!!!
Umm...as the snake count increased, I was literally LOLing. ;-) I knew from your post on FB that this had to be about snakes. *shaking head* And here I figured that once you moved out into the country, you would have gotten over your "irrational" fear, or at least tempered it. A lot. "Viciously attacked"? Oh, dear...you need intervention. Love you!
ReplyDeleteI knew as the snakes kept coming out that this would make the blog...and that you would find it humorous!
DeleteI do have to admit, the longer the summer goes on, the better I get at dealing with them. By the end of the summer, I'll talk to them and chase them out of the garden, and I won't even shudder when doing it! But I won't touch them. EVER.
My irrational fear is spiders. The bigger, the scarier! I had a close encounter of the VERY SCARY kind when I was 11, and have never been the same since. My family actually helps to kill/remove them, as appropriate. Inside my house, they are not a protected species. Outdoors, if they are in an out-of-the-way spot, I try to let them be. We did have a persistent one make its web too close to our back door many times last year. The guys would move it each time.
ReplyDeleteHow sweet that your son stood guard, watching the snakes and keeping them away from you! I'm sorry that they appreciate your yard.
Ooooh, I can't handle spiders if they are in my shower. If they're in there, I'll make Pete chase them out for me! Any other part of the house, Mr. Tissue or Mr. Newspaper takes care of them. If they're outside, I let them be. There's just something about them being in my shower I can't handle! That's so nice of the guys to take care of them for you :)
DeleteNate is a sweet kid; he takes his responsibility of protecting Mommy while Daddy's away very seriously!
Dogs! Especially the barking kind.
ReplyDeleteI remember you saying that! I promise you though, if you come to my house, my dog probably won't bark unless it's to let me know someone's here, and if he does, it's just one bark. Big barking dogs intimidate me, but I've only been bitten by little barking dogs. Odd how I don't fear the little ones, huh? :)
DeleteI hate snakes too, but cockroaches will just about give me a heartattack! It's not completely irrational... they are gross, big, and they freakin' fly! I had no idea they fly, but they do, and that is far worse than a snake or spider that can only slither/crawl. I mean, that's bad enough, but when you add flying to it, you can forget it! Ugh... just the thought is creeping me out!
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