Irrational Fear?

I'm afraid of people's stupid phobias.

I attribute that same, well not fear, but that level of being grossed out, or whatever, to my level of being grossed out by bugs and insects. If someone doesn't like holding or seeing snakes, I don't really dismiss it, I just kinda think of how I would feel if I saw a centipede, and then I imagined myself holding that centipede. And then there are insect lovers out there, who would call my fear irrational.

So in the end, its all relative. Can't blame or fault them, as long as they don't press their biases on others, then I'm fine.

My favorite is my one female friend who is terrified of snakes to the point where she made me get rid of a stuffed snake I won at six flags(I made some little kids day), but she wants to get a pet tarantula.

The majority of my extended family are afraid of my snakes. They cringe when I simply mention them. Though, now it seems like my sister is more afraid of the frozen rats. :rolleyes: However, my parents are not. I'm actually planning on buying a GTP for my dad (though, I will most likely care for it since I'm moving back into their house in Vegas). He has fallen in love with them and the G-stripe BPs.

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Originally Posted by DellaF

We haven't had much company since we got our snakes. My friends and family always have an excuse why they can't come. Sometimes I think I should have had some snakes years ago.

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:rofl:

My dad told me when I was in college that if I got a snake he would stop visiting me at my apartment. :P

I didn't end up getting one until I move almost half way across the country for work, but I always found it odd that he was that afraid of snakes. I highly doubt he would ever set foot in my apartment now.

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Originally Posted by Kinra

My dad told me when I was in college that if I got a snake he would stop visiting me at my apartment. :P

I didn't end up getting one until I move almost half way across the country for work, but I always found it odd that he was that afraid of snakes. I highly doubt he would ever set foot in my apartment now.

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I'm glad it turned out to be the opposite with my dad! I begged since I was ten years old to have one but had to wait until my parents moved to another state. Now I have three going on five next month and I'm actually moving back in with them next month and suddenly they're fine with me bringing five snakes into their home. :rolleyes:

I havn't actually got a snake yet due to phobias... I have been with my wife for nearly 8 years and its took her this long to actually persuade her into allowing a snake in the house !!! My daughter has been pestering her since she was 4 (shes now 10) .... her grandma and mom said they wouldnt ever come in the house with a snake here (I can't think of a better reason to rush out and buy one haha)....
We have had geckos in the house for the last few months and she is finally actually getting into looking at the various ball morphs .... so we will see how things go across the summer and getting one haha:D

Yeah, we really shouldn't be laughing, as most people have phobias of some kind. It's just a shame that people are often unwilling to tackle the phobia.

One of my Sgt.s at work was in the middle of a huge, very dangerous situation that SWAT had to respond to.

The only thing he cared about was that someone mentioned there was a huge snake near the back door. Yep....he's more afraid of a snake (probably garter or black racer...) than he was of the very dangerous and mentally unstable person he was dealing with....lol

My father was a vet of three wars and scared to death of snakes. Even a hatchling black rat snake would send him running for cover. He would rather have you take pot shots at him with a rifle than pick up a garter snake and walk toward him, and I'm not exaggerating.

I do think that most people have an inherent distrust of snakes. But there is usually more to it. In my father's case, it was reinforced to the point of nutty fear. His family lived close to a creek when he was a kid and they found numerous copperheads, so I can understand why they taught their kids to be scared of snakes. My father would actually start to sweat if he was near a snake and he wasn't afraid of much else in the animal world.

Everyone doesn't have that ingrained fear, though. From my family's accounts, I was never afraid of snakes or spiders. As a toddler I would find these fascinating creatures and bring them into the house to share with my family. In my case, seeing the reaction that they produced probably encouraged me to seek out even more of them. But then again, I was an evil child. :D

When I encounter someone with a fear of snakes, I refrain from feeding it. Not everyone will do it, but some people eventually get curious and want to see what it is that I "get" from keeping snakes. You can't win everyone over, but I have had a few folks who feared snakes end up holding my snakes and finding out that they aren't bloodthirsty man-eating monsters.