Children's Irrational Fears

We have had a few of these along the way. Anne Michal was deathly afraid of the big potty and so we had to carry her little potty with us every where we went. I have pictures of her waiting at the door with her potty in one hand and her baby doll under her other arm. She got over that one and moved on to the playground. One day we were at the playground and she was climbing around and she happened to look down at the walkway. It had holes in and you could see down to the ground. She totally freaked out, started screaming and wouldn't move. It was months before we could get her to play again. At the same time she would no longer swing in her swing that we had hanging on a treebranch. She'd tell me to just swing Elizabeth instead.
Then Elizabeth was dealthly afraid of cats. This started when she was a baby and we had an outdoor cat. She would crawl over to the storm door and pull up. If the cat walked across the carport into her line of vision she'd start screaming and screaming. I would tell her just to get down and crawl away, but it never worked. When she was a year, we moved to a new town taking the cat with us, but he ran away. A year later we moved again and our neighbors had a cat. She wouldn't even go outside because the cat might "get her." I couldn't even get her to walk from the door to the van; she insisted on being carried. I finally nipped that one in the bud by forcing her to stay outside, screaming the whole time until I guess it finally occurred to her, "Hey I have been out here a while and the cat hasn't gotten me."
Creed's irrational fear takes the cake though. Are you ready for this? He is terrified of stickers. Yes, stickers. Here is an example from today. We went to Kroger which he loves because he loves to drive the little car carts. We go through the self checkout and before I can stop him, the guy that mans the selfcheckout tried to give him stickers. He became hysterical. He sobbed and sobbed while I explained to the man that he is scared of stickers. My neighbor at the next checkout station laughed and laughed. Then one of the managers heard him crying and brought over stickers to console him. The man yells, "No! He is scared of them." She just looked at him. I assured her that it was crazy but true. To add to it, I had forgotten to buy something and we went back in to get it. We went through the self-checkout again and Creed kept his eyes on him at all times looking at him very suspiciously. I have to wonder just what he thinks a sticker is going to do to him.