Saturday, April 10, 2010

"Fear" update

We know that J is afraid of the dark and we keep a set of LED Christmas lights around his window because a regular night light just isn't enough light. He needs the industrial sized night light. We also have a bedside lamp on a timer so he can fall asleep with it on and then it turns off by itself. The other night those two things were just not cutting it for some reason.

Last night when it was time for bed J came to me with his "I need some help but I'm not sure you're going to let me do this but I can't do it myself smile" and request. He wanted me to help him hang a heavy flannel sheet over his windows. Uh, no. I pointed out the fact that he had blinds on his windows (not to mention the fact that he's been sleeping in this particular room with these particular windows since his sister moved to CO over 2 months ago and it had never been an issue). He said that they "have a hole" and proceeded to show me what he perceived to be a hole. I then pointed out that the "hole" was actually the bronze colored framing in between the double windows. Two windows, two blinds, a peek of bronze framing between those blinds. No scary, dark outside showing at all. I tapped on it. He looked surprised and touched it with his finger. I asked if that was what all his fear was based on the night before. He ran his finger all the way up and all the way down the framing with a look of awe and a little embarrassment on his face. I asked again about the fear and got a sheepish grin for an answer. I pointed out that most of his fear is manufactured in his mind. Problem solved.

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