Scared Superheroes

    My mom, in my eyes, is a broom-wielding superhero. While everyone that sees a rodent runs in the opposite direction, my mom has the courage to pick up a broom, chase the rodent into a room, enter the room and lock the door so the rodent can't escape. If you've ever watched a Telugu/Tamil/Hindi movie, you'd have seen the hero look like he's running away from the baddies only to lead them into a garage/warehouse and lock the doors so he can beat them up. Well, in a nutshell, that's my mom to the rodents/lizards/you-name-it-creatures. 

    I was also aiming to be a superhero to my kids, except, they found out very early that I wasn't. One fine evening, as I was walking with my two young kids on our street, we saw a tiny baby turtle on the sidewalk. Who would think a turtle would show up in a suburban neighborhood? Now, anyone that even remotely knows me knows that I'm maniacally phobic to reptiles and amphibians. I get it...they are so tiny compared to my size, they're even more scared of me. I understand the logic, but you've to understand that phobia is beyond logic. I still wanted to set the right example for my kids in doing the right thing. So I whipped out my phone, looked up the animal shelter contact and called them to report this lost baby turtle. The lady on the other end sounded appreciative until she said that it was too late in the evening for them to come pick it up and asked if I could pick up the turtle and keep it in a shoebox till the next morning. I had to tell her there was no way on earth I was touching it. She was trying to be helpful and told me that the turtle wouldn't bite me and that the worst thing it could do was pee on me. On hearing this, my kids - who didn't even know ROFL at that time - were literally rolling with laughter. I thanked the lady and hung up. I was still going to do the right thing, so I rung up a neighbor's doorbell and asked him if he could keep the turtle until the next day. He picked it up like he was picking up a pebble and took it in.

    Should I have hid my fear that day so I could continue to let my kids think that I'm capable of anything? Was it really okay for them to know that mom also is human and has certain fears? To me, the most important lesson I could teach my kids that day was that we could do the right thing in spite of our fears. Even though they had a blast telling the scared-mom and peeing-turtle story, they still thought of me as courageous enough to check for monsters under their beds and to shoo off spiders.

    Any parent would want to be a hero in their kids' eyes. And any parent would throw themselves in danger to protect their children - if it ever came to my kids' safety, I'd have picked up that turtle (heck, who knows, I might even pick up a snake if I have to protect my kids). Otherwise, it is A-okay for even young kids to learn that their parents are also human and have their fears.

    Even my superhero mom is scared of caterpillars, which don't scare me. My "I don't care if there's a reptile next to me" daughter screams and runs from cockroaches and spiders - both of which I can handle with ease. You look out for reptiles for me, and I'll deal with the bugs! Together, we can deal with anything! And it's okay to be scared, even if you're a superhero.