Most people have a phobia of one sort or another. I, for example, am terrified of needles. When I have to get a shot or blood has to be taken, I about have a panic attack, and I am especially frightened when I get a splinter in my foot that requires a needle to pick it out. My dad has an irrational fear of matches. Apparently, as a child, his older brother through lit matches at him, and in the process, he created a phobia that still plagues my dad. To this day, Dad won't eat a birthday cake that has had lit candles on it.
So, in the tradition of his mother and grandfather, Gus also has managed to come by a rather bazaar phobia. I discovered his phobia on a few innocent walks in the park. A few weeks ago, we were walking in the park like always - me on the left and Gus on my right. A young mother came towards us from the right with a baby stroller, and Gus about knocked me over freaking out and running off my side of the sidewalk. I didn't give this much thought since it was his first time to see a baby stroller, but since then we have encountered many more baby strollers with the exact same panic attack following each. Today, Gus about chocked himself on his choke chain, and in the process tripped me up pretty good. To make matters worse, we live in a town where everyone either has a baby or is pregnant - everyone!
The ridiculous nature of this fear reminds me of when Gus was a baby and we were first taking him on walks around Abilene. He wasn't afraid of cars when they drove by, but he was deathly afraid of the parked ones. Thankfully, he got over that fear. Hopefully, this baby-stroller phobia will also only be temporary.
1 comment:
Maybe he's just like me. My phobia, of course, is of babies--or of dropping them. I think Gus might just be afraid of babies, not of baby strollers. As such, he seems pretty rational to me.
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