Our 4th son K just turned 5, and lately for some reason the last little while he has had a big streak of being paranoid. He has to sit on a certain side of the table in the kitchen, because he doesn't want to be in sight of the laundry room (which is dark unless we want to waste electricity by leaving the light on when we are not using it) because he fervently believes there are monsters in it.
Then the werewolf thing started. All of a sudden he started asking about the moon, and what would happen if it got full (see my second blog for more detail on that) and eventually we figured out that he was worried about werewolves. I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what we could have done to get him so worked up about werewolves (he asks daily now for a report on what the moon is doing and luckily we are able to tell him that its covered up by clouds-gotta love the Northwest). I finally pinned his obsession to his watching Wallace and Grommit, Curse of the WereRabbit on DVD. Now, we rented that movie when it first came out and none of the boys had a problem with it. I recently checked it out from the Library, and on this subsequent viewing, K is too scared of it to ever watch it again.
Last night I was taking a bath (no-I don't take one every day-I usually shower, but it was cold and I was sore, so I had a soak-and its true that I never get to take a bath in peace...again, see the werewolf post on my other blog) and again I had to hide behind the shower curtain so the boys could come and get their teeth brushed. K came in and asked me "Mommy, are earthquakes real?" I unthinkingly said yes. He started to hyperventilate (pretty close to it anyway). I tried to comfort him by telling him that earthquakes don't happen very often here, that they happen more in places like California. He freaked out worse. Then he started talking about big waves. "Do you mean tsunamis?" I asked. His eyes got bigger and he nodded. I proceeded to tell him about the tsunami evacuation plan, and where we would go if one happened. #3 was in brushing his teeth during this part...and when #4 asked why that was a safe place to go and I said because its higher up than our house, #3 turned around and said "What if its a really big flood?" This didn't help the situation. I sent #4 out to talk to his Dad. He came back a few minutes later (no rest for the weary) and asked what if the big wave came while we were asleep? I explained about sirens and warnings and etc...He said "But I can't wake up once I go to sleep!" I told him that Mommy and Daddy were used to being woken up and would wake up, go upstairs and bring the boys down and put them in the van so we could go somewhere safe. This took several minutes of explaining why it was easy for us to wake up when it was so hard for him. He also asked me if the water would get in our house. I tried to divert him (but that was unfortunately like trying to divert a tsunami). I thought I had succeeded when he said "What about all the cracks where the door is? Won't the water come in there?" I sent him back to his Dad. A little while later he came back in..."What if we are on a boat?" I told him we were not likely to be on a boat on the ocean anytime soon. He started crying (most of this conversation had been punctuated by tears and hyperventilation as well as several conversations about the comfort prayer can bring). He said something about seeing a picture where the waves were really high, and just the top of a boat was sticking out. I finally figured out that Daddy had been showing him pictures on the computer. They were not tsunami pictures but pictures of boats and waves on the Columbia River Bar. I am not sure how earthquakes got into the equation, but I think D might be to blame there somehow as well. So now in addition to his fears about laundry room ghouls and werewolves when the moon is full, we can add earthquakes, big waves, and riding on boats. Lovely.
Then the werewolf thing started. All of a sudden he started asking about the moon, and what would happen if it got full (see my second blog for more detail on that) and eventually we figured out that he was worried about werewolves. I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what we could have done to get him so worked up about werewolves (he asks daily now for a report on what the moon is doing and luckily we are able to tell him that its covered up by clouds-gotta love the Northwest). I finally pinned his obsession to his watching Wallace and Grommit, Curse of the WereRabbit on DVD. Now, we rented that movie when it first came out and none of the boys had a problem with it. I recently checked it out from the Library, and on this subsequent viewing, K is too scared of it to ever watch it again.
Last night I was taking a bath (no-I don't take one every day-I usually shower, but it was cold and I was sore, so I had a soak-and its true that I never get to take a bath in peace...again, see the werewolf post on my other blog) and again I had to hide behind the shower curtain so the boys could come and get their teeth brushed. K came in and asked me "Mommy, are earthquakes real?" I unthinkingly said yes. He started to hyperventilate (pretty close to it anyway). I tried to comfort him by telling him that earthquakes don't happen very often here, that they happen more in places like California. He freaked out worse. Then he started talking about big waves. "Do you mean tsunamis?" I asked. His eyes got bigger and he nodded. I proceeded to tell him about the tsunami evacuation plan, and where we would go if one happened. #3 was in brushing his teeth during this part...and when #4 asked why that was a safe place to go and I said because its higher up than our house, #3 turned around and said "What if its a really big flood?" This didn't help the situation. I sent #4 out to talk to his Dad. He came back a few minutes later (no rest for the weary) and asked what if the big wave came while we were asleep? I explained about sirens and warnings and etc...He said "But I can't wake up once I go to sleep!" I told him that Mommy and Daddy were used to being woken up and would wake up, go upstairs and bring the boys down and put them in the van so we could go somewhere safe. This took several minutes of explaining why it was easy for us to wake up when it was so hard for him. He also asked me if the water would get in our house. I tried to divert him (but that was unfortunately like trying to divert a tsunami). I thought I had succeeded when he said "What about all the cracks where the door is? Won't the water come in there?" I sent him back to his Dad. A little while later he came back in..."What if we are on a boat?" I told him we were not likely to be on a boat on the ocean anytime soon. He started crying (most of this conversation had been punctuated by tears and hyperventilation as well as several conversations about the comfort prayer can bring). He said something about seeing a picture where the waves were really high, and just the top of a boat was sticking out. I finally figured out that Daddy had been showing him pictures on the computer. They were not tsunami pictures but pictures of boats and waves on the Columbia River Bar. I am not sure how earthquakes got into the equation, but I think D might be to blame there somehow as well. So now in addition to his fears about laundry room ghouls and werewolves when the moon is full, we can add earthquakes, big waves, and riding on boats. Lovely.
2 comments:
Don't let him watch Monsters, Inc. My daughter slept in my room for over a year because she was so freaked out about it.
You guys really do have a lot to deal with while living at the coast, don't you? I never thought about it much before.
I think it is normal for his age, but you know that, right. Some sons are more literal than others...
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