I have a bug phobia.  So much so that I’m pretty sure they will be the cause of my death.  I imagine that I will be old enough to have a heart attack and one is going to land on me and I will either have a heart attack or give whoever is closest to me a heart attack from screaming like I’ve just been knifed.  The thing is that I do like facing my fears because I feel like that is the best way to overcome them.  This is why I go camping occasionally.  However, I’ve told my husband that there will come a day when I will be too old to camp (aka. heart attack range).

If I were playing my own psychologist I would say the root of this fear may be that our house was infested with crickets when we were little.  I’m not talking 1 to 10 – I’m talking 100’s.

Like, one time my cousins came to stay over and we were explaining to one of them that we have a slight cricket problem and lo and behold one was sitting on her shoulder and rubbing it’s chin, like “Interesting..”  I’d turn out the lights at night and could make out cricket shapes on my sheets.

I grew up in a house in the country in Texas.  A house that my parents had built.  It was really nice.  They made it Spanish style with arch ways in the front and stucco all around.  It had a great big porch in the back with a swing and a long driveway that we could skate down.  But after that experience, I never wanted to live in the country again because –  crickets.

And the thing about crickets is that they aren’t introverted/reclusive like spiders.  They are extroverted/intrusive.  This is why I think I have a fear.  These things were always like popping out to say hello and jumping at you, etc.  It was frightening.  Kind of like extroverted people (just kidding –  kind of!) :-p

One time,  I was at a restaurant in Dallas visiting with an old friend from work. It was a place called Cheddar’s.  I was talking to my friend.  A friend that I didn’t know all that well, by the way.   I felt an itch on my thigh so I started to scratch it. But then the itch moved higher and I looked down and noticed a bulge in my pants.  I realized then that it was some kind of insect so I launched myself out of my chair and proceeded to stomp around and scream trying to get the thing out of my pants.  It kept moving higher.

So, I tried to refrain from ripping my pants off then and there in the middle of the restaurant and instead I ran to the restroom.  The entire restaurant is looking at me at this point.  My friend runs after me.  I get in the stall and proceed to rip off my pants and throw them outside the stall.  I ask my friend if she sees a bug out there and she says no.  I look down and the cricket is smack dab in the middle of my chest.  I screamed bloody murder and flicked the thing out of the stall and finally I was rid of it.  Seriously.  Tell me that isn’t frightening?!  Ok, to some maybe it’s not, but for whatever reason it is to me.  Fear is just not rational.

Needless to say, I never heard from that friend again.  :-p

The cricket problem was so bad in our house that when our parents told me that they were going bankrupt and had to sell our childhood home and move to the suburbs, I was actually happy.  I was like – the suburbs where they have pest control?  Yes!!! ( As I flicked a cricket off my eyebrow.)

I just remember spending time on the weekends with my flip flop in hand and killing crickets in the foyer.  It was a past time.  Maybe that’s why I have bad bug karma today.  We also had scorpions but they didn’t mess with me as much.  My mom however got 3 in her dress one time and that was painful.

So, the moral of the story is don’t live in the country.  No just kidding.  If you live in the country, invest in pest control.  :-p  You might help prevent your child from developing a phobia. Sorry in advance to any bug sympathizers out there.