Fear

I was nine years old when I saw the movie "It". The scariest freaking movie ever, about a clown that lives in the sewer and kidnaps children and then eats them or something terrible like that.

It is especially frightening when you are only nine years old and possess a very active imagination. For three months afterward I slept on my parent's bedroom floor. I remember keeping my mom up late every night because I was afraid to close my eyes, and about six weeks into this routine she told me emphatically that I was never allowed to watch another scary movie again in my life.

At 26, I am scared of obvious things like spiders and snakes and serial killers, but to this day I still hate clowns. I am pretty certain I will never get over that fear. I have watched dozens of other horror films though, (shhh, don't tell my mom!), but none of them have had nearly the same effect on me as "It". It's interesting, the things that frighten us, and the things that don't.

This past week while we were in California, we pulled out some toys for my kids to play with in my Grandparent's front yard. Ryan loves balls, he can usually be found carrying around one in each hand and saying "Ball!" over and over and over again. My Grandma brought out three balls for him to play with, a large purple one, a green one and a soccer ball. 

For whatever reason, as soon as Ryan saw that soccer ball, he decided he DID. NOT. LIKE. IT. We kept trying to show it to him, to convince him that there was no reason to be afraid of the soccer ball, but he wasn't having it. In fact, he was so scared of it, that we ended up placing it down a walkway that we didn't want him wandering down, because as soon as he saw the ball, he started running in the opposite direction. The soccer ball worked better than any toddler gate!

Well, it was just too quirky of a fear to not have a little fun with. And we totally got it on video:

Epilogue: I am proud to say that my brave little boy ended up conquering his fear. By the end of the trip he was carrying around the soccer ball like they were best buds. Now if only I could be that brave about clowns.

Nah, I don't think so.