Bloody Mary...

[temporus]

So the other night, just about 11:30pm, my older son came out of his room and into my office.  He was scared.  This is, generally speaking, unusual for him.  He's not prone to waking up in the middle of the night, almost always it's because something has been wrong, such as being sick.  He has mentioned bad dreams in passing.  And of course, I know

Comments

[sartorias]

Oh, lord. I remember my daughter being terrified of an area of the playing field, because that was where the bloody X was (our version of the Bloody Mary tale).

I think for kids there is no difference between fiction and non-fiction. If it raises emotions, and all the others believe it, it has to be true. Whatever the adults say, because kids already know adults lie.

[temporus]

It hasn't, thankfully, recurred yet. I snuggled him on my lap for about 20 minutes, then put him back to bed, and would have sat with him, but once I did that, he slapped me away and said to leave him alone, so I think the incident was over rather fast. I don't recall getting over things nearly so quick and smoothly as a child.

[sartorias]

How old is he? He might be getting to that age.

[temporus]

Seven. He also might have just been tired enough that a little snuggle up with an adult was enough to push aside the fears and get back to sleep.

[sartorias]

Yeah. In my experience around eight is the time when they sometimes start becoming a bit more independent. Which can include refusing hugs.

[temporus]

We'll see. Then again, he's also the one that hugged a passing pilot as we got off the plane last year, and thanked him for a great flight. (Poor pilot handled the "assualt" with good grace and cheer, even though my son practically flung himself at the man without any warning. And he wasn't even our pilot!)

[sartorias]

Heh! Consistency, humans R not.