The Problem with Irrational Fears

 Happy New Year! 

And . . . Happy new me! It's been a rocky few years since I pretty much disappeared from the canvas following my stroke in September 2021. 2022 found me struggling with post-stroke epilepsy, which reared its ugly head again in 2023. Then I was plagued with mysterious debilitating headaches for eleven months from November of that year until they vanished in October of 2024. And so now, here I'm am, visiting you once again here on the blog. I even popped in and posted a Question of the Day for the Facebook community this morning. Oh, how good it felt to engage with some of you once again!

The GG QOTD had to do with irrational fears. We all have them. Whether it's about driving off of bridges into rivers below or clowns or ventriloquists dummies or even dinosaurs, irrational fears can grab us all by the throat sometimes and start to choke us. 

Photo by Marc Pascual

Mine? Ever since I heard about the Nyack high school bus tragedy in 1972, I've been afraid of being hit by a train. Irrational? Probably. But I still cringe and shudder a bit as I cross over train tracks. As a teenager, hearing the details of other kids my age dying when their school bus was hit by a train had a profound impact on me. Thus, my reaction to crossing the tracks. To this day.

As a child, my biggest irrational fear was that I'd die in quicksand. If you grew up in the '60s, you probably understand. And that was thanks to the television shows we watched.  Quicksand was a common theme. From Gilligan's Island to Lost in Space to Get Smartt, the threat of quicksand was an  ever present plot twist. As a kid, all I knew was that if I fell into quicksand, I was doomed. After all, I didn't have Lassie to save me. I just had a gray poodle named Cha Cha, who, I was certain, would prove to be pretty ineffective.

So what is the point of writing about this on an environmental parenting blog? Well, a couple of things. There are a lot of scary things going on in our world right now. But haven't there always been? We need to pay attention to which fears are valid and which ones are irrational. Might I get hit by a train? It's possible, but probably not. Are you going to be eaten by a dinosaur? That one's a hard no. 

There are many, many threats to the environment. Scary threats. Do your part to help wherever and whenever you can. And try not to let fear control you.

As for the children and all the scary stuff there . . . I don't even know what to say. It is a scary world for them. It's our job to make it a little less scary, though. How? By doing whatever is in our power -- start by turning off the news whenever they're around. And check your scary conversations at the door. 

Remember, my irrational fear of getting hit by a train? It started with a news story when I was a young teen. I didn't live in the town. Or in the state for that matter. It was something I didn't need to know about. 

So maybe, before you let your kids in on some of your adult conversations, ask yourself, Do they need to know this? You can't protect them from everything. But you can still protect them from some things. And maybe, just maybe, they won't grow up obsessed with some of their parents' or grandparents' irrational fears.