My sons are seriously concerned about shadows.
Ever since we read Olivia and the Missing Toy a couple years ago, which then-3-year-old Cody could recite almost word for word, shadows have become a frightening piece of his life.
In the book, Olivia is looking for her favorite toy, which has gone missing (hence the title). At one point, she sees a large, looming shadow in the hallway, made all pointed and spooky by the darkness. It turns out to be just the family dog when she flips on the lightswitch, but for some reason, the image of that scary shadow has stuck with Cody.
And now he has passed the fear on down to Logan.
Just this morning, Logan came downstairs and said that he had been hiding in his bed from the “scary shadows” in his closet. I tried to point out that shadows can’t hurt you, but he refused to be reassured. How do you explain to a 4-year-old that shadows aren’t alive, that they are simply places where the light doesn’t reach? That’s too abstract for a little kid to absorb, so I guess a simple, “Don’t worry, they won’t hurt you,” will have to do for now.
Personally, shadows were never terrifying to me, but I had plenty of other things to be scared about. Snakes, darkness, heights, crazy witches in my nightmares and mean people, to name a few.
Oh, wait. I’m still scared of all of those things, except for the crazy witches.
As silly as we might find some of our kids’ fears, it’s still important to reassure them and make them feel safe and protected. It can be easy to just blow off some of them when they seem unreasonable or ridiculous, but to a child, the fear is real. A parent dismissing it as something trivial undermines the child’s feelings and leaves her feeling vulnerable.
It’s amazing what a hug and a “I won’t let anything hurt you” can do for a child’s fears.
Because hopefully they won’t be scared of shadows forever.
