I'm a hotbed of phobias and fears. Illnesses. Semi-scary TV shows and movies. Accidents of any kind. Natural disasters. Roller coasters.
One of the things that I've had to work on as a parent is not letting my own phobias become my children's problems as well. During our trip to Disney World in May, I found myself sitting on a roller coaster with S, telling her that it was fun and not scary at all, when really, I wanted to throw up. I even had to fight the urge to scream during the Haunted Mansion ride with T, since he was very nervous and certainly didn't need to see his mother scared, too.
Our new city is apparently known for being windy, which does not thrill me at all. I hate wind, or actually, I hate windy nights. I worry about our new trees and bushes, my wreath flying off the front door, and debris flying through the air and breaking windows. A few weeks ago, I woke up in the middle of the night to a horrible windstorm. I couldn't go back to sleep, so I ended up working from 4 am to 6:30 am. Figured I might as well do something productive. :)
The other night, we had another pretty bad windstorm. Driving home in the car, leaves and twigs were flying all over the place and the kids started freaking out. The wind didn't let up as we were getting the kids in bed, and H became rather upset. He couldn't sleep and wanted to be with Mom and Dad.
We told him all sorts of comforting things. "It's just the wind—it can't hurt you." "I know it's loud, but just try and relax and fall asleep." As I was saying them, my own mind was filling with all kinds of awful scenarios, not the least of which was the wind somehow making our double-pane windows break, and glass flying everywhere.
Even though I suffer from a plethora of phobias, I'm grateful that I have children who need me to be strong and give them comfort (however weak I may feel at the time). As I say the things that I don't necessarily feel, it does end up calming me down a little. I haven't figured out how to make the phobias go away completely, but maybe someday...
Friday, October 23, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
For Bam, the wind phobia is mitigated by wearing a hoody. I don't think he can hear the wind with the hood on. At night, I'll often find him asleep with his quilt wrapped tightly around his head (which doesn't help my mother fear of asphyxiated children in their beds any, but that's why I check on them!). I manage my own fears by figuring out what the worst case scenario is and solving it. I have a friend with major insomnia. She figured out that there are nights when she just can't go back to sleep, but she can pray. So she prays until the sleep returns. That is probably the best anti-phobia device I've ever heard.
I like Angie's answer. Prayer seems to me to help with so many areas of my life and sometimes the only thing that calms me down...oh and talking to you of course too!
Post a Comment