Simply Mother

Sarah has taken to locking up the monsters at night. it is so curious though. She seems to have just picked up this idea of monsters from books (and perhaps other kids) and the fact that she’s supposed to be afraid of them. The thing is, she isn’t really. But she gets a kick out of pretending to be, I guess, and has taught Jade the drama of running, squealing, from monsters. Of course they’re both giggling half the time too.

I don’t know, perhaps there really is a bit of fear there, or this game is a way of working through other fears? But when she locks them up at night, she is just so matter of fact about it; it’s no different than brushing her teeth or getting tucked under the covers or any other part of her bedtime routine. She just says, “Oh, I have to lock up the monsters,” climbs back down from her bed (she’s on a top bunk now), walks over to the closet, and uses her charm bracelet that doubles as a key (in her imagination) to lock the door, and merrily climbs back up to bed.

Then tonight when I was going out after coming in to bring her a cup of water, she nonchalantly asked me to lock the monsters out when I left, then explained how to do it. (I had to use the key on the inside of the door, replace the key in it’s position on the play kitchen, and then go out and close the door behind me. Pretty straight forward, right?)

When I was little, I don’t think I could talk about monsters like that–especially the need to lock them out of my room before I go to sleep in it by myself*–without being terrified. Even now I can work myself into a state if I think too much about the fact that Matt’s not here tonight and I’m alone with the girls, and if someone wanted to, it would be so easy to . . . Yeah, I better not go there!

But she is not terrified, and that’s what makes this so adorable.

*Well, not exactly by herself. Jade sleeps there too (usually, unless she’s in our bed), but she was already asleep at this time, and a sleeping person doesn’t really count when you’re needing a companion to keep you from freaking out!

Filed in: child development • family | December 6, 2008