Monday, April 9, 2012

Leporiphobia must be a genetic childhood ailment.

Oh Google. I just knew that if I looked up the technical name for the fear of rabbits that I would, at the press of the enter key, get the desired result. I also discovered that acerophobia is the fear of sourness, globophobia is the fear of balloons, vuteuthindion is the fear of picnics and there are even a whole slew of names for fear different cultures like the French, the English, people from Singapore and the Walloon people (had to “Google” that one too and to save you the time Wikipedia states “Walloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia“). Anyway not here nor there I have discovered that both my daughter and I share a childhood version of a fear of the Easter Bunny.

The first Easter I can remember (my mom said I was around 4 years old) lying in bed the night before envisioning this giant, adult human sized rabbit hiding eggs for me. By the morning I reeeeally wanted to partake in the search for treats but there was NO WAY I was going out there on my own in case he hadn‘t left. Rabbits were my favourite animal but I knew they had big sharp teeth and I’d was pretty sure I didn’t want to see one that big. My mom said her and dad tried everything but were unsuccessful in their attempt to get me to go out to the livingroom by myself (I think they just wanted to sleep in for a bit).

Flash forward to yesterday and my girlfriend decided to take my daughter to the mall to do some shopping. There was a display out at the mall in celebration of the Easter Holiday. The first time they walked by there were just decorations and Easter paraphernalia arranged for the kids to look at. The second time they walked by they had someone dressed in an Easter Bunny suit so the kids could go meet him and take their picture with him. Apparently once the Bunny waved at my daughter she was not impressed. Since then I’ve lost count in the number of times we’ve discussed that the Easter Bunny does not in fact EAT children but just leaves chocolates and candies for them to find.

We did however have a very successful egg hunt this year. The same friend who took my daughter to the mall has two boys and has been apparently doing egg hunts for several years in a park near her house. She invited a bunch of us to dinner and designated a couple of us to be responsible for stuffing plastic eggs with treats that we can use to hide. It was really fun. The kids thought it was amazing and I think secretly us parents get to live vicariously through them and re-live a bit of our own past. It was a really great group of kids and I’m truly going to miss this family we’ve created when we leave here in a couple months.








It’s really endearing right now to be able to relate to my kids on this kind of level. I know that these are the good moments and that these kind of events are where the stories come from. I’m not looking forward to the day that I won’t be able to get involved and our issues become older and bigger. One can say I suffer from a bit of Ephebiphobia. I’ll let you look that one up!

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