Great advice Lil! I, too have/had similar fears. I know that parenting is not for the parents, but the children, and I have learned to letting it be about them. I would love to homeschool so I can shelter them from teasing and bullying, but I would be sheltering them from daily contacts with friends and learning how to navigate around in the real world.

The goal to parenting is to raise a healthy, independant adult, right? I cannot think of any other job that millions and millions of people work so hard at, just to work themselves out of a job.

I will share my crazy fear with ya. I *know* that it is really irrational, and I have found different, albeit strange ways of coping, because they are all over the place. My fear is called gephyrophobia, the fear of bridges. Silly isn't it? I can't stand long, tall, arched, narrow, suspension, bridges over expanses of water, or wooden country bridges. I can deal with regular interstate overpasses, and most of the time when other people are driving the afore mentioned icky bridges. I cope by holding my breath and scrunching myself into my seat. i sometimes sing to myself, and then take a deep "cleansing" breath after i make it across. I have to get over them, because I travel a lot.

Stangely, I am not afraid of flying, am not claustrophobic (although I would not be too happy if you were to put me in a small small small space), and any fear of heights is not of the height itself, but the sudden painful stop at the end of a fall.