Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Bigfoot



I love to be scared. I also love to scare my kids with talk of the Boogey-Man, the Wolf-Man, Skid Thud, monsters, aliens from outer space and my all time fav: Bigfoot. Whenever we are in the car and are surrounded by forest,I always tell the kids to be on the lookout for Bigfoot. I went to Seattle with friends two years ago and bought a book on Bigfoot thinking it would be fun to look at with the kids. It was and Kate even took it to show and tell in the 2nd grade. I have thought to myself how ingenious I am for letting my kids imaginations run wild with these things and that it is all just harmless fun because it's fun to be scared by silly things. Wussy girls are not allowed to live in the same house as me anyway and so I am just doing them a favor right? I think this clearly backfired on me though because of Ella. Oh Ella. Why oh why are you such a drama queen? Here's the scoop: About two months ago (give or take) Ella got in bed with me REALLY early in the morning and was just trembling like no other. She was scared out of her mind and I asked her if she had had a bad dream to which she replied "Yes". She wouldn't tell me what it was about and every night since the bad dream she has refused to sleep downstairs in her room and she won't even go down there by herself even in the light of day. She always has to have someone with her because she is scared. She has been sleeping in Sophie's room on the floor for the past two months. Great, she is regressing. What's next? About a month ago I finally got her to tell me what this bad dream was about. She told me that in her dream we had captured Bigfoot and he was in a cage in the basement. Then he escaped. She was standing down there and Bigfoot tapped her on the shoulder and when she turned around he "got her". Great. Poor kid. All my talk of scary things really has freaked the crap out of my five year old! Here comes the guilt train! I felt so bad and have tried to be sympathetic especially when it is broad daylight and she won't go downstairs to get dressed unless someone is with her. What a wretched mother. I decided to not pester her about sleeping down there and that she will go down there when she is good and ready. I am happy to report that for the past two nights she has slept in her room in her own bed without incident! Oh happy night! Lesson learned on my end. I guess I will ease off of the scary things. But only a little.

4 comments:

Becky Nelson said...

Wow, I am right with you. Bella is scared to go anywhere in our house. She says that she can't go into the bathroom becuase it is scary. Everything is scary. I don't know what scared her, but it sucks. With Ella you should just move her bed upstairs and have her share a room with Sophie and let Katlynn have her own room. We bought a cute night light at target that helps, but Bella keeps coming into our room late at night saying she is scared. Let me know if you have any ideas. Good Luck

Brittney said...

Oh the joys of parenting. We all have to learn from our mistakes the hard way sometimes.

My daughter's little friend watched Monsters vs. Aliens and she refuses to sleep anywhere but with parents now. She's 10! So I guess it could be worse. At least she was in Sophie's room and not yours. :)

I'm glad she's coming back around!

khepworth said...

u-ha, skid thud.

Big Foot would be a scary encounter.
Just tell her that you heard on the news that he died the other day. Hence, he is no longer. Then start pushing barbie and fairy movies like crazy to counter act the scary big foot. Maybe she'll eventually forget about him. Until then.......good luck getting her back down in the "big foot" dungeon. hee-hee.

Mandy said...

Yah! A new post from Rochelle. I love that you think it's fun to scare your kids. I'm totally laughing and I think I might go buy that book about Big Foot myself. I could use a little more fun in my life;)