Reliving My Childhood Nightmare

Yesterday I relived my childhood nightmare.



You know how you kind of relive your dreams through your children? Well yesterday I relived my childhood nightmare through my child. It was freakin awful.



I went for my daily walk while Savanah rode her bike along side me. The plan was to go for the walk near the horses, down the path, around the neighborhood and finish at the park where I would let her play. It was a beautiful day, sunny with a nice breeze.



We were walking down the path with Savanah about 5 feet ahead of me. Her bike started to lean to one side. I could see she was going to fall but it looked like it would be a manageable fall with no injury. The path is on a bit of a hill so I could tell she might slide down in the vegetation a little.



She did slide and came to a comfortable stop. I was right beside her at this point. Her bike and she had landed in a little sand mound, a nice soft landing. So I thought. Well this sand mound was in actuality a red ant colony, a nest, if you will.



Within a half a second several hundred ants were crawling all over Savanah. These ants were pissed that their home was just destroyed.



She screamed a blood curdling scream. but was motionless with shock. I grabbed both her arms and yanked her out of the ant hill. Grabbed my water bottle and started pouring it all over her legs and body. The cold ice water startled her out of her shock and she began to move and scream some more. So I am chasing her with the water bottle trying to knock the ants off of her. After a few moments we got all the ants off.

We both took a deep breath and began to survey the damage. She had no bites thankfully, a small insignificant scratch on the palm of her hand. No other bumps and bruises.

Then we looked at her bike still submerged in the ant pile. It had thousands of ants on it. Then she started to cry.


I was still a little panicked and was struggling with what to do about her bike. I needed a hose or water to wash the ants away. So I called Jeff and asked him to bring a bucket of water.


The bike was not a loss. I pulled the bike out of the ant pile and started shaking and kicking at it. The ants started to fall off. An occasional ant made its way on to my body throughout this process. Of course I would freak out and run around like a lunatic trying to get it off.

By the time Jeff got there I was pushing the bike along headed toward home. Jeff rinsed the bike off and took the bike home in his truck. Savanah I continued to walk towards the park.


She told me she would hate ants for the rest of her life. I have hated ants my entire life. As I had a similar run in with an ant pile that has been burned into my brain for life. Ask my sister Vivian about it!

On the way home Savanah was all talk about the incident, she needed to vent. I was more than happy to listen. At first she was very hostile towards the ants. Saying things like, "I will step on every ant I ever see." "Why does God make things that sting?". "I mean why does there have to be bees?"

The sweet, nature-loving, empathetic child that I have suddenly changed her tune a bit. She asked, "What do you think it is like to be an ant?" I said, "Well probably a little scary, these big things are always trying to stomp on you."

Then to my amazement she started to feel bad about wrecking the ants home! She said, "It probably took those ants years to make that nest and I just ruined it. All that hard work!"

Well Savanah you are a better person than me. I could easily spray raid on every ant hill I see every day for the rest of my days.

Apparently she will not be scarred for life. Must be my great parenting! hee hee
Joytobe