Something that comes up once in a while in my universe of parenting is how much or whether to shield my child from fear. Often, like many of us, I suppose, I tend to underestimate my child’s ability to handle complex thoughts and issues. A good example of this is my hesitation with telling him about my pregnancy. When I did around his second birthday, he thoroughly surprised me by grasping the idea that there was a baby in my belly without any apparent confusion.
Recently I got Jonah a second book in the Frog and Toad series. We have both enjoyed the first book, Frog and Toad are Friends, so I knew we would have a good time reading the new book. I quickly skimmed it before purchasing it, not realizing one of the stories the book contained was quite scary for a small child. When we were reading the book the other day and got to that story called Shivers, midway through I decided to skip the story and move on to the next one. Jonah was fine with that but later asked me to return to the story. If you are not familiar with this tale, it’s basically a ghost story in which the character of a giant old frog, who eats little frogs, dominates.
As I read Shivers, I watched Jonah’s face for signs of fear. He looked pale (nothing unusual there) and concerned, but very interested. After we got done, he asked me to read it again. It has since become Jonah’s most requested story.
As much as I tried to shield him from fear that I was afraid he could not yet handle, I realized that he himself became fascinated with wrestling with it. This was similar to the Halloween incident when Spooky came by to trick-or-treat. Jonah has since incorporated Spooky into the larger scheme of things. He calls Spooky on the phone, pretends to be Spooky, and refers to him often. Obviously, Spooky made a strong impression. It is truly amazing to watch a two-year-old brain at work, processing all kinds of emotions and experiences.
No comments:
Post a Comment