Things Never To Tell Your Children
March 24, 2006
When I was young, around eight or nine years old, I used to go camping with my grandparents and my sister in Eastern Oregon. We drove around in an old camper and went looking for deer, bouncing over old gravel roads. My sister and I would shriek at the sight of any small critter that ran across the dusty roads, but we weren’t really scared. Or so we told each other.
During the days when we weren’t actually on the road, my sister and I would play in the dirt, chasing each other around, hunt for obsidian rock and arrowheads, and poke down holes in the dirt with our sticks. We were told that the holes were old, abandoned badger homes. Except that Grandpa left out the abandoned part.
My grandfather had a great idea. If we were bad, he’d throw something down the badger holes and then tell us a badger was going to come and get us for being naughty. I envisioned a badger to be a downright nasty creature by the time the threat had been made a good dozen times.
When I got home from camping, I whipped open my North American Wildlife book- yes, I had one- and found a picture of a badger. If I hadn’t heard that this very creature was going to come and hunt me down in my sleep, I probably would have been okay. Instead, the animal’s claws were pictured as larger than they actually were and the teeth became fangs in my mind.
To this day, I still get seriously creeped out by badgers. So why do I love this site so much?
Oh, no! I hate when adults do that to children. It’s so mean. When I was a kid, my uncle told me not to cling to the side of the pool because he said there were “wall sharks” there. Long after I knew there was no such thing as a wall shark, I still got a little nervous whenever I had to climb out of the pool. It’s a good thing it didn’t ruin swimming for me, though it could have, and I would have missed one of my favorite workout activities.
The badger website is adorable.
March 24th, 2006 at 9:47 ambecause you’re a freak.
but i still love you!
March 24th, 2006 at 10:59 amSome people have too much time on their hands!
I think I just lost a good 2 1/2 minutes – mesmerized.
What is it about dancing, singing animals that calls to us all in the deep reaches of our hearts?
BTW – I think it is a genuine lack of both creativity and parenting skills that lead adults to needlessly scare a child rather than taking the time to show/explain/etc. whatever point it is that they are trying to get across. Most of all it seems very lazy to me. Let’s try not to make the same mistakes with our own children.
March 24th, 2006 at 11:52 amHaha, children are so innocent and impressionable. But it’s not funny at all times when they (elders or parents) create such fear in children regarding people or animals – we can laugh now, but then I remember when people used to tell me such stuff, I’d be really freaked out of my skin if so-so ghost/animal/person would come and do something to me.
The badgers in that website can’t jump out to get you if you’ve been naughty so perhaps, that’s why you enjoy it so much. Even hardcore badger haters would have agree on the cuteness of clip.
March 25th, 2006 at 8:23 amCaryn- Isn’t it funny how things that we know aren’t true can still give us the willies because of the impact they had on us as kids?
Megs- I know. I’m just so darn lovable though. Or something.
Ellen- I know! I stare at that thing for what seems like forever! Maybe there’s some government subliminal message hidden in there somewhere. It’s disturbingly hypnotic. And you’re right- let’s not do that.
Kavitha- I have other stories of things my parents or elders told me, but nothing stuck with me like the badgers did. I have no idea. Hardcore badger haters. We should start a support group.
March 26th, 2006 at 11:42 amBadgers? We don’t NEED no stinkin’ badgers!
April 3rd, 2006 at 10:26 pmBrian- I second that! No badgers!
April 4th, 2006 at 12:03 am