comment: >
  
  I have OCD and my intrusive thoughts were always my family dying in a fiery car crash. After I had my son it’s just intrusive thoughts of him trapped in his car seat on fire. My OCD was under control, I had a few clocks in my house, it was all fine. After I had my son I went back to a clock on every single wall in every single room. I can see the time no matter where I am. I have my watch, my phone, a pocket watch, and another wrist watch that I keep with me when I leave the house. My van clocks are programmed. The places I spend a lot of time outside my house have the time properly programmed. Gotta keep him safe from dying in a fiery car crash.
context: This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.
  Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!"
  (For an explanation of what a "showerthought" is, please read this page.)
  Rule-breaking posts may result in bans. >
  
  Every time I take a shower I hear the faint sound of my kids crying for help. They are fine ...but my brain loves to convince itself the sounds in the walls and pipes are my kids  in danger when I'm in vulnerable places.
  Edit I am curious how many males experience this.  I hear this happens a lot with mothers but as a dad myself, I hear this all the time.  My wife no longer hears it but with kids at 12/6 I occasionally hear "daaaad" or "hellllp" or I am convinced I heard a window break or something broke and I have to get out and check it out. >
  
  Phantom cries while in the shower are so bizarre. >
  
  What that's a thing? ಠ_ಠ >
  
  My kid is a year and a half old and it's much less common now, but yes. I will occasionally hear him cry while in the shower even when I have his monitor right there and he's asleep. >
  
  The baby monitor is just something additional to obsess over. Especially when they're lying still, then you gotta go wake them up because they're too still. >
  
  Nah, you go over there, stare for a minute to verify they're breathing normally, then creep away. 
  Then you hear sounds and accidentally wake them up while they're doing their active sleeping. 
  It's a vicious cycle of self inflicted sleep deprivation. >
  
  Just fixate your gaze on a spot on whatever is covering them. It's going to move as they breathe. Hopefully. >
  
  We use a patterned swaddle so that it's a tiny bit easier to see the movement. But man, you really can go nuts with the fear. >
  
  My son is almost 7. These have not subsided. Every phase of his life they just morph and grow. When he was <3 I had a fear of returning the shopping cart in the space NEXT TO MY CAR because I was sure someone was going to drive off and he was too little to verbalize it.
  It never gets easier. >
  
  My son is 22 and I still get them. Even more once he got a car and became more independent. >
  
  My 'children' are 26 and 19 and I still get anxiety when they are out of contact for a while.  I know it is irrational but it is not something I can just turn off...  I do not let my anxiety interfere with their lives and just keep it to myself, but I definitely breathe a sigh of releif when they get back. >
  
  I can be weeks without contacting my parents and I live 2h drive away. Your comment made me think that maybe I should call them more often. >
  
  Going to the park? Be paranoid that someone is following you to snatch your child?
  Going to Target? Be paranoid that your child will walk out the doors with a stranger when your back is turned. 
  Driving by yourself to your best friend's house for a much needed girl's night? Panic about a semi hitting you head on and you dying and your kid has to grow up without you. >
  
  Don't forget all the potential diseases! >
  
  We mask and are vaccinated. He's a covid toddler. He's been obsessed with washing his hands since he could run. >
  
  ^ Conservatives when they're told to wash their hands >
  
  "I won't be clean and you can't make me" >
  
  shits in own hand and eats it, to own the libs >
  
  Three weeks ago we felt a bump on my 11 month old daughter's belly, so we had it checked by the pediatrician just to be safe. Now she's scheduled for her second round of chemo next week, 2 days before her 1st birthday. So yeah, that's a fresh new layer of hell we weren't prepared for. >
  
  Happened to me when I was 6. Mom thought the bumps on my neck looked weird and took me to the pediatrician. The pediatrician said you need to get him to the hospital immediately. 6 months of chemo and radiation later I was cancer free. >
  
  Out of curiosity, do you have much memory of the treatment? How you felt? What you thought at the time? >
  
  I have tons of memories. Lots of playing Banjo-Kazooie on my Gameboy Advance SP. PET scans and CAT scans. The port I had in my chest for chemo. Before chemo I loved pumpkin pie but my cousins brought a pie to the hospital when I was receiving a drug that made everything taste bad. I couldn't eat pumpkin pie for years after that. In hindsight I should've been more scared. I know my parents sure were. Guess I was just happy to be skipping kindergarten. Fortunately Hodgkin's lymphoma has something around an 80% survival rate but it's still crazy to think about. >
  
  Thank you for the answer. I'm glad you beat it. My 4 year old recently had a major surgery (nothing as serious or complicated as cancer) and I've been extremely interested in how she's felt about everything - even though she's acted braver than I ever could. >
  
  Kids are pretty resilient. I didn't even know why my parents were so scared. I'm glad your daughter's surgery went well. >
  
  I used to hide in the clothing racks at stores when I was out with my mom. I thought it was hilarious. she did not. >
  
  You must be my kid >
  
  Hearing about possible impending wars was a bit unnerving when I was young. Now I have two sons and the idea is terrifying.
  I recently rewatched The Pacific and realized I was older because I identified less with the young men and more with the parents having to watch their kids go to war. >
  
  Watching The Last of Us is a VERY different experience as a dad than watching The Walking Dead and Every Stephen King movie ever before becoming a dad. >
  
  After becoming a dad all horror movies with kids have become a hard no for me. I recently had to turn off both bird box and a quiet place after about 20 minutes.  Parenting in the apocalypse is just way too real for me. >
  
  Stephen King’s Pet Semetary. Holy shit. If you haven’t seen it, don’t. >
  
  That was the main one for me after I became a dad. Fucked me up. That and the baby scene in Trainspotting. >
  
  I don’t remember the baby scene, I do remember him swimming into the toilet world to get the suppository back. 
  “No fair daddy, no fair” “daddy, come play with me”….. in my son’s voice…. And my wife keeps finding that scene on tiktok and sending it to me >
  
  
  !The baby dies when they are high. !< >
  
  That’s the scene…and the ceiling part later on. >
  
  Now that you have made me think about it I'm probably going to have those nightmares even though I don't have a kid! >
  
  never love anything. 
  problem solved. EZPZ