Certifiably so.
Let me explain...
On Memorial Day Weekend, we had gobs of family time. It was wonderful and fabulous and terrific and heaps of fun. We ended up taking the kids fishing, and in MinneSOOOOta, anytime the temperature is above 32 degrees and the sun is shining and there isn't ice on the lakes, we swim.
Even if it means we swim in our jeans.
However, lemme tell you about an irrational fear of mine....Muskies. As in, "Muskelunges" (<----- I have no idea who those dudes are that I just linked, but there are some SERIOUSLY freaky photos over there. My phobia has been taken to a new level. Help.). Fish. Huge. Child-sized huge. With sharp teeth.
Okay, all you oceanside dwellers can stop laughing at me. There have been attacks by Muskies. ATTACKS! (Not life threatening, no...but still.) As in, FISH TRYING TO EAT HUMANS. You think this stuff happens only in the ocean? OH NO IT DOESN'T!
So, when my children began to do this:
And this...
With their stringy hair just dangling in the water...
My blood pressure rose.
My palms got sweaty.
I started having palpitations and saying "Hail Mary"s and wringing my hands and pacing the dock.
All the whilst searching the water for dorsal fins (c'mon! All fish have 'em!). I just kept imagining a big ol' nasty fish under that dock just waiting to taste one of my kiddos.
It was nearly too much for me to handle. So I told them to get their life jackets on. Don't ask why. It was all I could do at the time.
***Disclaimer. Life jackets will not prevent attacks from muskelunges. It simply sounded like a good idea at the time. End disclaimer.***
I don't even know what Muskies are but I can relate to that "mama fear" as I call it. I have a ridiculous amout of fear every time we go swimming period. I fear because my kids aren't great swimmers. {yet} It doesnt' matter that I used to be a lifegaurd -- I rarely put on a swimsuit now and the combo of my kids and water -- makes me a nervous wreck....
ReplyDeleteThose are some seriously gigantic fish! I am not a water lover (I love to GO to the beach but don't ask me to get in the ocean) and all kinds of swimmy things freak me out. We live near the shark attack capital of the world (New Smyrna beach) and even though I've never been there, I know that all the beaches are relatively connected and whats to stop one of those sharks to migrate down to the beach we do frequent!!
ReplyDeleteGross.
ReplyDeleteOhhh I do hate muskies too. We spend a few weeks every summer at a GIGANTIC lake in Maryland, and whenever I go in the water I get nervous. My dad told me they only swim where it's real deep, like 30-40 feet or more, but you never know. Stranger things have happened! Yuck!!
ReplyDeleteOh my, that was seriously funny...ok not the muskies part {shiver} but the irrational theory that the lifejackets needed to be put on...can I laugh at myself vicariously through you? You know, given the fact that our logoc seems to run along the same riverbed...ha ha ha
ReplyDeletecracking up over here, every time my husband takes the kids fishing he sends me pictures of them holding some bug and all i think is it is going to bite them and they are going to get a weird disease
ReplyDelete