Okay, so my irrational childhood fears came back to haunt me not long ago. I was fairly certain that as an adult (who has plenty of irrational fears, anyway) my silly fears of monsters was behind me. However, it would appear that I was somewhat mistaken…
So, as a child, when I would take a bath I was frightened to let the water out while I was still in the tub because I thought the monster who lived in the drain may come up and get me. So, I would always step out of the tub before unplugging the drain. This crazy irrational fear caused me to continue taking only baths for much longer than most of my peers. But, I somehow overcame this fear and was able to shower like a normal human being. Since I have not worried about the monster who lives in the drain for quite sometime, I felt that this would never come back to haunt me…
Last week, while I was bathing Lily, I discovered how wrong I was. For her birthday, her great aunt Loretta gave her some tubby crayons. She found them one day, so I opened them up for her to see what they are and told her she could bring them in the tub with her when it was time for a bath. So, at bath time, I put the crayons in the tub and showed her how they work. She, being only 13 months old, of course, tries to eat them. But, she did get the hang of it toward the end of her bath. She made a lovely masterpiece on the side of the tub. When I wiped off the crayon it started changing the colour of the water. Her bath was cut a little short because the crayons made the water look so gross, I had to drain the tub. I pulled the plug. Then, I felt it. I became a little anxious. I was watching Lily who was very curious about the water running down the drain and remembered my fear from growing up. It took all my strength not to pull her out of the bath at that very moment; not to tell her to stay away from the scary, evil drain monster. She just kept getting closer to the drain, and I kept biting my tongue. I did say something when she tried to put her fingers in the drain – I tried to sound calm, I am not sure if I succeeded or not – I said, ‘don’t put your fingers in there, it’s dirty.’ Now that I know that this irrational fear of the drain monster still exists in the back of my head I have to be extra cautious when I am bathing her so that I will not pass this ridiculous fear onto her.