Could it be "Pittakioniphobia?" : A Sticky, Southern Tale

Sometimes, it is hard to believe that two children who came out of the same womb can be so different.

Photo by:  Rebekah Tozer Photography

My son has never liked stickers or stamps. In early childhood education classes, he would run away if any teacher tried to give him a sticker or stamp his body.  He deplores them.  The teachers would look at me puzzled.

I would shrug my shoulders and repeat every time, “Yeah, he’s not a fan of stickers!”  I would encourage him to say “No, thank you!” instead of embarrassing me with a big, fat, exasperated no that would usually come from his mouth angrily.

My other child, on the other hand, could cover her entire body in tattoos, and stickers, and then sleep in them if she could. She became potty-trained simply out of her love of receiving owl stickers. She is always the first in line to receive a sticker or stamp after participating in any event that they are given out.  She is obsessed.

Does she dance just to get stickers?

Let’s just say that her like of stickers and his dislike of stickers are creating a sticky mess in the Hines house.

You know that preschool art is basically just a showcase of what can my child do with stickers.  We have stickers everywhere.  Sometimes, she will even put a sticker on my husband and me.  Who knows? We may even have a sticker on our behinds right now, and not even know it.

Will was wearing a June sticker from “Little Einsteins”   on the front of his shirt as he sat down for dinner last week.

The non-sticker fan in the family immediately spotted the blonde girl on his shirt. “Seriously, get that off your shirt now!”

He proceeded to not sit at the dinner table until his dad removed the sticker. This is not an isolated case.  We say he’s being silly, but he sticks his ground.

The infamous sticker hat

My daughter came home Friday with this dinosaur hat decorated with stickers.  She wanted to wear it at the dinner table. We have a no hat rule, of course, but we sat the hat near us in the room. The hat was in my son’s view.

He couldn’t stand it.  He had to get it out of his view. We think he’s being a little melodramatic, but is he?  

We’ve not gotten a note from elementary school saying your child acts like a lunatic around stickers, but he certainly does at home.  His reaction to a sticker is almost the same as if someone made me hold a snake.

That got me to thinking. Could he have a sticker phobia? Is there such a thing?

The sticker-hater who just lost another front tooth.

I’m still not convinced that he’s not putting some of his school’s acting lessons to good use when he views a sticker, but good old “google” has told me that people do exist who have sticker phobias.

One doctor has termed it, “Pittakionophobia.”

The real test is whether or not my son will wear a band-aid.  He will.  He doesn’t love it, but he’ll do it.  He’ll also eat a banana with a Dole sticker on it.  

So maybe he has a minor phobia of stickers, but in reality, I think he just likes to aggravate his little sister, and create a family squabble.

Of course, I can only hope that this little bizarre dislike of anything on his body will mean that his body will remain tattoo-free once he’s living away from me.

I’m a little worried about the youngest one though.  She could be a problem.

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