This week’s challenge is all about phobias.

To tell you the truth, I’m not really bothered by things such as spiders or roaches or any of the kinds of things a lot of Americans get upset over such as public speaking or the dentist.

I know that sometimes, I’ll get an idea that something seems scary or dangerous but after thinking about it, I’ll realize I jumped to conclusions and tackle it like any other problem. I guess my only truly irrational worry is sometimes, if I am the last one to go to sleep, I convince myself that every little sound I hear is someone breaking into the house.

Now, even though I think that a burglar would come in and take one look at our big ol’ projection TV and laugh, I still worry. We have pretty nice cars (not BMWs or anything) and we frequently go outside with the kids’ four wheeler. I don’t know if this makes us a target but it could. In our neighbourhood, we have both “rich-looking” homes and poorer looking homes. It’s an older area so some houses have been better cared for than others. I worry sometimes because our neighbourhood borders some lower-income apartments and in the past, we’ve had sketchy characters come through, knocking on doors and asking for money. I don’t know how a break-in scenario might go but the shotgun is in the closet next to the bed and if it ever came down to it, my husband would not hesitate to shoot, especially if there was a child in danger situation.

But that’s really the only thing that makes me get downright paranoid. Even if I only hear the creaking of the house settling into the night, I wonder if there’s someone – or something – out there. And my mind can start from there and snowball, thinking about every scary thing I have ever read or seen on TV. It’s everything I can do not to replay scary images in my head and just quiet my brain.