Bringing this back from the archives because it’s darn good…
San Diego based Hip Mommy Kate Siegel is not only a great Mom, but quite the hilarious writer. She throws down some Halloween thoughts that will leave you laughing…and wondering. Enjoy!
When is Scary – just TOO SCARY?
“Mamma – Can we get MORE Halloween decorations”, my three year old asks while shaking a bloody plastic finger in my face
”Hmm buddy let’s see what we have here”………..
Fake Severed Arm? …….. “Check.”
Dismembered Plastic skeleton?……”Check.”
Two sets of creepy hands coming out of the ground coupled with a dusty tombstone?….”Check and double Check.”
I ignore the screaming hanging reaper and close my eyes before I get a good look at the baseball sized rubber spider in our bushes.
“Bud, I think we’re just about done here…..we have the entire display section of Halloween Express in our front yard.”
“But Mamma…..We don’t have a phantom, or a zombie, or a Bat, or….or…or…”
My mind slowly numbs as Owen continues on down his list of examples, demonstrating clearly how badly I have failed him. Pretty soon it becomes obvious that he truly feels deprived as he only has 12, not 20 things in the yard that are guaranteed to earn me a visit from CPS.
What happened to “Cowboy”, “Fireman”, or Sweet God dare I mention “Barney”? My barely 3 foot tall golden haired child has turned into a mini Dexter and I am a party to all of it.
“Owen, Let’s go inside and watch Mickey Mouse.”
Sure 20 minutes of watching the pinnacle of childhood morality…..this will make me feel better about his obsession with Vampires….
“OK Mamma…Mickey Villains!!”
Great……..Mickey Villains….I supposed that is the least of all evils in our arsenal of Halloween fare….If I hear Jack Skellington’s “This is Halloween” one more time, I might fake my own death and move to Belize.
Where did I go wrong? His toy chest is filled with Cars, Trucks, books about Cars and Trucks,
When did Fake Blood and Vampire fangs replace “Fuzzy Blanky” and “Rindy” the stuffed dog?
He’s too young for this……or is he?
Against my better judgment I googled “My 3 year old loves Zombies” to see if any other parents were concerned about their child’s love of the macabre and how experts recommend I “fix this”.
I waited for a host of negativity – kind of when I google “stomach ache and fever” and find 7 sites that tell me I have the Haunta Virus…… and 3 days to live. I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of support amongst child therapists and fellow parents. “Compliment the creativity”, “Support your child in a safe and healthy way”, and “Don’t quash your child’s imagination”. I started to feel a lot better.
One recommendation was to make sure at this young age, that your child doesn’t start to become afraid and think that these things are real or that they can harm him/her. This made a lot of sense because when Owen asks me if Frankenstein can “come to our house”, I have to remind him that Frankenstein isn’t a real person, that he is a made up character that we watch on TV and read about in books.
Owen is starting, albeit very slowly, to understand the difference between what he sees on TV versus what is real in the world and so far, he isn’t showing any signs of fear. I guess we will deal with that when and if it happens. In the meantime, I will enjoy his recitation of the entire soundtrack from Nightmare before Christmas and try not to worry when he screams bloody murder while chasing his baby sister with a plastic femur (She laughs btw and loves every minute of it…..(#raisingtwoserialkillers??)
In a couple of days my little bug is going out into the streets with his Dracula Cape, his fangs, and his fake blood, his one year old baby sister toddling behind begrudgingly as an adorable penguin.
He asked his Dad to dress up as a Zombie, and me to escort him as Sally, Jack Skellington’s ragdoll cohort because “Sally is pretty Mamma and so are you”. Now if that doesn’t tug at your bloody heart strings, and make you forget about Barney…nothing will
Happy scaring everybody!
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