Just Like His Momma
When I was about 10- 11 years old, I went to a sleep over, where the mother showed us: Friday the 13th, Halloween, and The Shining. I was traumatized. For life. I've watched a few other scary movies over the years, but frankly- they're scary. I remember them at the most inconvenient times: right before I go to bed when Doug is out of town, when I'm walking the dog at night, or when I wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. (sometimes I wonder if I was just wiggling or did the bed shake because Satan is waiting to possess my soul and then I'll projectile vomit from my mouth while I scream terrible bad words?)
Anyway, I'm not a fan of scary movies. I've never showed Andrew anything scary. The craziest I have gotten is Harry Potter. I thought about easing him into scary movies this summer with some Jurassic Park. I just haven't yet. Andrew, unfortunately, seems to have my penchant for over-active imagination. He tends to scare himself just fine without the benefit of the memory of a scary movie.
Yesterday, a friend of his forwarded one of those "Forward to 10 friends, or the ghost will come get you tonight and you will die." messages. We're driving down the road when he gets this. It's 4:30pm. Bright and sunny. He's freaking out. What if that isn't a joke? Is this really going to happen?!!!! He starts Googling about it (hahaha- kids nowadays Google anything!). He tells me it's an urban legend. I know, dude. I got dumb letters (like on actual paper- not on my phone) when I was little too. See- I'm totally fine. It's not true. He is NOT reassured. I thought he had forgotten about it by the time he went to bed, but alas no.
I'm in his room, telling him good night and he says, "Mom, what if it's true? I'm scared. I want to sleep with you." Well, I'm insensitive about a lot of things, but freaking yourself out over totally illogical things is something I completely understand. So I said, "No. You're too wiggly. I can't cope with that." (you thought I was going to be sensitive and caring. I'm not sensitive when it comes to wiggly kids in my bed.) He said, "I'll sleep on the floor." So he did. As he's getting settled, he said, "Did Grammy let you sleep on her floor when you were scared?" "No. She was mean. I slept with all the lights on instead." For weeks. Unfortunately- I still do- as an adult. The one thing I will say for my over-active imagination is, at least I can laugh at it.
Anyway, I'm not a fan of scary movies. I've never showed Andrew anything scary. The craziest I have gotten is Harry Potter. I thought about easing him into scary movies this summer with some Jurassic Park. I just haven't yet. Andrew, unfortunately, seems to have my penchant for over-active imagination. He tends to scare himself just fine without the benefit of the memory of a scary movie.
Yesterday, a friend of his forwarded one of those "Forward to 10 friends, or the ghost will come get you tonight and you will die." messages. We're driving down the road when he gets this. It's 4:30pm. Bright and sunny. He's freaking out. What if that isn't a joke? Is this really going to happen?!!!! He starts Googling about it (hahaha- kids nowadays Google anything!). He tells me it's an urban legend. I know, dude. I got dumb letters (like on actual paper- not on my phone) when I was little too. See- I'm totally fine. It's not true. He is NOT reassured. I thought he had forgotten about it by the time he went to bed, but alas no.
I'm in his room, telling him good night and he says, "Mom, what if it's true? I'm scared. I want to sleep with you." Well, I'm insensitive about a lot of things, but freaking yourself out over totally illogical things is something I completely understand. So I said, "No. You're too wiggly. I can't cope with that." (you thought I was going to be sensitive and caring. I'm not sensitive when it comes to wiggly kids in my bed.) He said, "I'll sleep on the floor." So he did. As he's getting settled, he said, "Did Grammy let you sleep on her floor when you were scared?" "No. She was mean. I slept with all the lights on instead." For weeks. Unfortunately- I still do- as an adult. The one thing I will say for my over-active imagination is, at least I can laugh at it.
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