Our Morning Gardening Adventure...

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!!!