Small Childhood Traumas - How They Shape Us #ThinkyThursdays 8

Small Childhood Traumas

How They Shape Us

Now I'm not talking about big things like personal tragedy or abuse when I say "childhood traumas" because I'm not qualified to talk about such things. What I mean is the little things that stick with us and have helped shape our personalities.

Wittegen Press

$3.29 | £2.19
Amazon | Other

This post was inspired by the fact that I walked out of the bedroom this morning to see slug trails all over the old dining room carpet (brought in by a kittie we suspect). Rob found and removed the offending creature for me, because I absolutely hate them. I had to turn the light on in the bedroom to make sure it hadn't made it in there, I was that paranoid, even though the trail went round and round in circles three feet from the doorway.

Now I have always disliked slugs and snails, but the total paranoia comes from an incident when I was small. We used to stay on my aunt's farm for summer holidays and we would always leave our wellies outside the back door. One day mine had been knocked over, but I thought nothing of it. Then I put them on and they rattled - cue the screaming.

What you have to understand is that, at the time, I could not get off the boots by myself. Thanks to my ankle condition, wellies are really hard for me to get on and off, even harder than for an average person. So I was stuck until an adult could help me. Yes, the rattling was snails that had taken up residence in the dark of my boots.

Ever since then I have a totally irrational dread of slugs or snails coming anywhere near me. Once when I was at school I rubbed against a branch and ended up with the tiniest one on my knee (I mean less than half a centimetre long) and queue the freak out dance. Y'know the one - hands flailing and yelling 'get it off' loudly at anyone who will listen.

My mother has a standing on chair level of fear when it comes to mice because she sat on a nest of baby mice in a haystack when she was a child.

Small encounters can leave a large effect.

I find the human psyche an amazing thing. A lot of the time it protects us, but sometimes it just messes with us too :).

So there you have it, my Thinky Thursday, brought to you by the number 1 and the letters S L U and G :).

Do you have any irrational behaviours brought on by something small that happened to you as a child?