I have developed a very unusual phobia in the past couple of years or so, and it's got much worse since. It is the most unique, strangest phobia you could ever have. It is a phobia of small children between the ages of 18 months and 5 years (let's just say toddlers). I just don't like them near me, and if my family are invited to a friend's house who have got a toddler, I drop out and make up some excuse. Everyone says, ''she won't scream,'' or, ''he's not naughty,'' or, ''they're very sweet,'' but it's not always about that (although screaming is what has caused the phobia in the first place). It's just a phobia I have got - one of those phobias which are hard to identify the reasons. And because reasons are unidentified, the phobia makes me confused - and confusion is a very awkward emotion for me. Things what make me confused make me feel even more against something without knowing why, and could even cause a panic attack (or in other words, an outburst). When I'm out in public and a toddler is invading my space, I have to walk away before I start showing agitated expressions, like glaring, huffing, grunting, shuffling, ect. And I really, really hate it when a toddler sits in the seat behind me in the bus. It has become a big problem to me, because buses are my special interest, but my worse fear gets tangled up in my special interest, which is very confusing and awkward for an Aspie! I just hate the thought of a toddler behind me kicking the back of my seat and fidgeting and shrieking near my ears. It's bad enough having a kid with a loud voice on your bus, without it sitting right behind you. I think the sound of toddlers is the worst sound my ears have ever heard.
Sometimes, though, I might be fine with a child. I have a small boy next door to me, and he's just turned 5 (maybe he's not a toddler any more). I speak to him sometimes, and he chats back. When I left school at 16 I worked at a nursery for a while, dealing with children aged 2 to 4, and I loved it. I learned to filter out all the screaming and baby-talk, and could cope better when small children are around me. But since one was sick from a tummy bug, then a while later another one got sick, then another one, then one of the assistants, and I didn't like that. Luckily for me I didn't catch it, but I also do have a phobia of being sick (which is not an unusual phobia because almost every normal person is phobic about being sick), and you're most at risk of picking up the virus when around small children. So that finished of my joy of working with small children, but is not the cause of my fear.
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Female