Ara(tear streaked face): "There are red guys. Red guys in the trees. The wind is blowing."
Mama: "This is YOUR room, you need to use the magic word so they will leave."
Ara furrows her eyebrows and looks at me trying to understand if I am angry at her.
Mama: "They are afraid of the magic word, do you want to know what it is?"
Ara nods seriously
Mama: (loudly)"Skedaddle! You see they all ran away!"
Ara: "Ski-waddle?"
Mama: "That's right!"
Ara: "I can say ski-waddle and they will be very nervous!"
Mama: "YEAH!"
Ara: "SKI-WADDLE!"
Ara looks thoughtful
Ara: "Mama? Ghosts live in the rectangle (vent) I can say ski-waddle to them and they will run away."
Ara: "And, wolves will run away too."
Ara: "And monsters live in Sesame Street."
We also have skedaddle spray because she thinks the bumps in the plaster are holes that can bite her.
All of this seems to help empower her a little but when it comes down to it she is still a terrified little girl facing her worst imagined fears. Tonight when I went in she was under her covers sobbing and shaking. Her imagination is vivid and to her, the fears are real. I was exactly the same way, and to a certain degree I still am. So I tend to be really lenient with her, I want to make her feel safe and at the same time tell her I believe she can face her fears alone in the dark. Alex sticks to authoritative mode and in the end I think she actually feels safer when he does that instead of coddle her. It has been exhausting though. Our once tried and true bed time ritual has been disrupted and what used to be 30 minutes of story and kisses has turned into a 2+ hour ordeal. The good news is that the child development articles say that she will grow out of it.. in 5 years or so. Ack!
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