Unintentionally Passing on our Fears to the Kids
I have this completely irrational fear of drains. All kinds, but pool ones just about do me in. Deep end drains are the words ever – just the thought of their horrid, murky selves under the water looking at me makes me want to scream. I can’t even look at them while standing beside a pool. It’s a little insane, but I’ve felt this way as long as I can remember. My daughter is a water baby. Since she was an infant she’s simply been obsessed with being in the water, and my husband Sam has encouraged her to be comfortable and confident swimming and playing. The first day in, I asked my aunt, “Oh yeah – where’s the drain?” Everyone knows I hate them so they told me it was in the deep end (which makes it even more terrifying because then it’s all dark and awful). We were keeping Bella in the shallow side so I didn’t think about it again except shudder and explain I’d been afraid of them forever. For the rest of the day, she wanted nothing to do with it. Not only was I unable to get over my own fear, but now I’d passed it on to my fearless kid who didn’t have a care in the world about drains before I had to talk about it. I didn’t say anything else, the by the next day she stopped mentioning it. I know how paralyzing it was for me as a child. How do we go about this as parents? You can also find her work on Liberating Working Moms, Still Standing Magazine, She Reads Truth, The New York Times, and The Huffington Post. Smaller glimpses into her day are on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. More from Diana:
Bella’s never ending bedtime struggle.
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