Most people have at least one irrational fear. Spiders, snakes and dogs seem to be fairly common fears. Gayle at Monkey With Glasses has a fear of getting lost. As for me, I have an irrational fear of earthworms.

I always thought that my fear of worms was just a personal quirk of mine. After all, it does seem a little silly to be afraid of an earthworm. They are harmless creatures that help our gardens grow, and are really helpful in a composter. Yet, I am terrified of them. I felt alone, living in a world full of earthworm loving people.

I am not sure why I did it, but the other day I went to my favorite search engine and put in the words “fear of earthworms”. Guess what I found? There is an actual name for it…Scoleciphobia. I am so excited to know that there are tons of people who are afraid of earthworms. I am not the only person who has an irrational fear of these harmless creatures. I am not alone in my weirdness!

Over the years, I have put on a brave front when it came to my fear of earthworms. Especially in front of my children. I did not want them to know their mother was afraid of worms. As impressionable as young children are, I did not want to take a chance of passing my fear on to them. Also, let’s face it, they are my children. If they had found out, they would have thrown worms on me.

The lengths I would go to in order to keep my earthworm fear a secret surprises me at times. One incident in particular sticks out in my mind.

My son and I had moved into a small house. For us, it was a welcomed move after living in apartments in not so safe neighborhoods for a few years. Even though we were renting, I decided to plant some flowers in front of the house. My son was out there with me as I was digging holes for the plants. While I was digging, he and I discovered an earthworm. My plan was to ignore it and the hole until it went away. My son had a different plan.

His plan was to pick the earthworm up and show it to me. He really wanted me to examine it. I really wanted to run away screaming. Instead, what I ended up doing would come back to haunt me. I told my son that I wanted him to put the worm back on the ground so it would not die. The reason I gave him was that it needed to get bigger. It needed to be much fatter before I could eat it. You read that right, I told him that I ate worms just to make him get the worm away from me.

Not very long after this, my son traveled to China, where my parents were living, with one of my mother’s friends and her grandson. My mother was very good about sending me pictures and videos of my son so I could see what he was doing there.

On one particular video tape you can tell that it had rained recently. My son and the boy he traveled to China with were jumping in puddles and talking. They both stop to examine something that they saw on the ground. It turns out to be a rather large earthworm. After the boys examined the earthworm for a minute or two I hear my son say, “Don’t kill it. My mom eats worms!”

Just when I thought he had forgotten all about that, it showed up right there on the video tape. There is no telling how many people have watched that video over the years. I am sure at least a few of them are referring to me as “The Mom Who Eats Worms”