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

[kaasirpent]

When I was in the third grade, two boys in my class told me about Bloody Mary, and the inevitable happened: There was a horrible storm, and I was absolutely convinced I'd seen Mary in the window of the bedroom during one particularly vivid flash of lightning and crash of thunder. I ran screaming into my parents' bedroom.

It was literally YEARS before I could sleep in that bedroom, and then never with my back to the window. I'm almost 50, and my mother sold that house about 2 years ago, and that room still gave me a slightly uneasy feeling.

Dreams are powerful. :)

[blue_23]

Oh, I was like that for years after seeing the movie Poltergeist. Every night I had to make sure my closet door was closed all the way. Even though during the day I had no problems with it.

[temporus]

I can't rule out that he might have heard of it/learned it at school, as opposed to a book. I didn't want to ask, because it seemed to blow over, and why add fuel to the fire? I don't think I heard that sort of thing until I was much older though, probably middle school aged, around about the time I recall people playing with Ouija boards and such.

[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.