By Kathleen Guthrie Woods
At a dinner not long ago, I shared some of the challenges we’ve faced with the raccoons that moved into our dining room wall. Yes, inside the wall. Damages to the vents, the doors, the walls. The fleas that have infested our laundry room and left me with itchy red bites all over my legs. Loud noises keeping us up all night. The costs of catching these critters and relocating them to wooded areas nearby. (We live in a big city, for Pete’s sake!)
I fielded questions about how they got in, how their nocturnal activities are making our dog go crazy, and what sounds they make (kind of a mewing by the babies, and a hissing-screech by the adults). But the question that stopped me in my tracks came from a nine-year-old:
“Wait…what’s a flea?”
He’d never seen one, never been bitten, never almost lost mind trying to end the onslaught by employing collars, sprays, high-pitched noise-emitting machines (those were the worst—and useless), dips, and bombs. And I hope he never does.
It’s unrealistic for me to expect that his life will be pain-free, but as I thought about how blissfully unaware of fleas he is right now, I allowed myself to think of other things I’d like my young friend to be free of:
Loneliness
Infertility
Ostracism
Bigotry
Bullying
Prejudice
Poverty – of pocket and spirit
We LWBers endure a lot of grief about being childless or childfree. Today, I wish you a different kind of –less and –free. I wish you a day of peace, of belonging, and of joy.
Kathleen Guthrie Woods is telling the story about her journey in The Mother of All Dilemmas. As she shares her quest to become a single mother (and ultimately embraces a life without children), she explores why society still appears to base a woman’s worth on how many children she has. Watch for updates on the book’s release here at LifeWithoutBaby.com.
Darn! How on earth did they get in without leaving a hole in the outside wall? Sneaky critters!
Oh, they did. Ripped off screens, tore through metal vents. When we blocked all those off, they dug through the roof. Haven’t yet assessed that damage. Ch-ching!
Thank you for this post .. definitely needed that right now .. i appreciate these wishes .. one day i hope we can live at peace with ourselves and childless not by choice situations.
Sorry to hear about the raccoons, we recently moved into our new place that was infested with SKUNKS! digging inside and under our front porch .. before we moved in, we couldn’t take it because the house and basement smelled horrendous /or like weed 🙁 .. had to work out a deal and it costed about $700 to cage up the area take them out and release them far away .. sigh .. they also said they have traces of rodent holes in our attic .. we are hoping it’s not raccoons .. we’ll have to wait it out and see
Skunks…that’s another post! Glad to hear you were able to get yours out of your house (yuck).
Hope today is a good (not stinky) day. 🙂
Hope you and all are only feeling “free” in the good sense and certainly not “less” than anything. Beautifully written, Kathleen. We get possums visiting our yard… Two had a fight behind my bedroom sliding glass door and scared the hell out of me… They sound like horror film satanic alien creatures! One died in our yard and stunk up the place before we could find it. Recently not too far from our area there was a rabies scare after a raccoon with rabies was found. Good luck getting them out.
That’s really lovely. (Not the raccoons, that all sounds terrible.)
I’m also amazed a nine-year-old was able to ask, “what’s a flea?”
Oh, to be so innocent, right?? Having endured squirrels tap-dancing in the attic above our bedroom for weeks on end (& having them come back not just once, not just twice, but THREE TIMES after they were originally evicted…!), you have my sympathy! Here’s to freedom — from raccoons & fleas, for starters…!