This is SOO scary!

Right now, the fear is EEE (fatal disease you get from mosquitoes. My area is now on high alert).

We also went through the swine (I was trying to get pregnant then and pregnant women were at high risk).

One time, my third child actually choked on an apple and my friend, a PA had to smack his back to save his life.

Also, yesterday, my daughter fell in the toilet because my son forgot to put down the seat. Oh, woops! That's not scary after all, because you only die if you fall in HEAD first.

Why is this woman smiling? Because she's not afraid of everything! (She's Lenore Skenazy, that's why.)

People LOVE to scare mothers, because we are so very, very good at neurotic paranoia. I do have friends who are afraid to let their children play outside due to the high rate of suburban kidnapping (which actually doesn't exist but why worry about facts when you get be anxious, right?).

You must read this book: Free-Range Kids, by Lenore Skenazy, apparently, "America's Worst Mom," only I missed all the media attention she got when given that title. This book, in addition to actually having real information about motherly fears (in order to allay them) will make you feel better about everything else in your life to.

She is not paying me to say this either. In fact, I don't know. But I do know that I run towards the anxious, and that motherhood can feel like a landmine of disasters--you never know where they will come from! Watch out, don't go outside or inside or in the bathroom and put down that plastic bag!

This book is like: fear not! We can ALL enjoy childhood once again.

Thanks, Lenore. I love you, you rockin' pioneer woman for the modern age!