What's to be afraid of?

It's a Bank Holiday weekend and so far all I have managed to do is mow the lawn. "Thank God" my dad yells, "It was looking like a jungle out there ... but you missed a bit in the corner!"

I must mention here that Dad recently has become a little more critical than normal ...(Before Goliath goes off into his "your Dad's favourite argument", I would point out that I do often get criticised ... especially since getting married ... Cream and Dad enjoy ganging up on me.)

So while sitting in my garden he managed to fit in five "You should's" in the space of 15 minutes before I politely asked him whether he would like to make life easier on himself and just point out those things that I was doing correctly. He paused, gave the garden a look over and replied "If I think of anything, I'll let you know" Thanks Dad.

Anyhow last week, I learnt something new about kids ... things scare them .. now I know this may seem like a foolish comment, but after Zoo's various encounters with the coffee table, I thought nothing frightened him ... For a while the only thing that would scare him was Goliath ... he would bawl at the mere sight of him. Things have changed and now he lovingly calls out to his mamu!!

So when he started bawling at the dinner table it took us a while to figure out that it was the new fan that had spooked him. Managed to calm him down and let him play with the buttons for a while (whilst unplugged) and then let him carry it around the room and now he's fine, but it's amazing how something tiny can really set a kid off.

Mujnu was too frightened to play in Zoo's play tents and tunnels despite watching Zoo crawling through them with speed ... Goliath reckoned I should have just flung him in there.. but I know from experience that that never works.

My parents were of that vein ... we used to have a great outdoor swimming pool in Gladstone Park which we visited in the summer and I vividly remember my Dad's attempts to get me to swim, which involved leaving me in the middle of the pool with a float. He was sure I would suddenly overcome my fear, realise how to swim and paddle back over to the edge ... to this day I still can't swim and I am sure that I was so traumatised by the event that I refused to have anything to do with water for years after, including washing!!

Dad was positive that throwing kids in the deep end worked ... Another time I remember being invited to a boy's birthday party and so, being the only girl invited to this party, I cried and cried and said I didn't want to go. Finally Dad relented and said that it would be rude not to at least give them a present seeing as I was invited. So we agreed that we would take a birthday present over, knock on the door, give my apologies, and come back home.

Now in my more senior years, there is no way I would have fallen for this, but oh to be so young and naive again ... you can see how this goes, I climb out of the car in my party dress (I should have suspected something here I know) and with the present in my hand ... Mum and Dad smile at me ... I walk up the garden path, turn around to see Dad smiling and waving back at me ... ok, just give the present, say sorry, I can't stay and make my way back to the car .. easy .. even for me the most nervous and shy kid around! I ring on the doorbell, look around ... Dad still sitting in his car ... the door opens, a kind looking mother opens the door, I pass her the present and tell her I'm going home and she looks at me confused.

"I've got to go home, Dad is waiting in the car for me" ... I explain and as I turn and realise that Dad has driven off, I burst into tears. I'm sure if you ask Dad now, he will say it was character building. I suppose I should consider myself lucky ... Unlike Mum, at least he waited til they answered the door before speeding off.