Darth Vader Will Shoot Me For Not Having Any Pants On

The last week or so has been a toughie because my sweet, three year old and his incredible imagination decided to go on an adventure of the most terrifying (for him) and gut wrenching (for me) kind.

 

His rapidly expanding imagination + the anxiety of occasional potty training accidents + Daddy leaving for a week for work + random daycare monster talk = an afraid to go to sleep, terrified screaming waking up from nightmare little guy.

 

There were flies in his eyes, ears, and nose. There was a giant yellow flying cat that came in through the front door, flew into his room, and was scratching him "really really bad", and there were monsters.

 

The fear not only kept him from wanting to sleep for two full nights and three nap times, it also threw potty training back some. We are working on the training set back of course. As for the nightmares, before Daddy had to leave, Sam and Daddy created a very special magic wand to fight all the nasty, scary things that might make Sam feel scared.

 

We gave Sam the power by letting him spray paint the dowel rod, choose the tape for the handle, draw "magic" symbols on the dowel rod, and choose the jewel for the top of the wand (all things I already had in my crafting arsenal but not more than a couple dollars worth of supplies). He used his wand to " trap the monsties and other bad fings" in the dream catcher in his bedroom, and ahhhhh, last night was night three of sleeping through the night for him. Return on my couple dollars of craft supplies..................100%!!

 

Ha ha, I can use his imagination for good just as easily as he was using it for scary things.

 

I did have to buy him special "nighttime undies"  JUST for the time being so that we could put that anxiety on hold until he works all the way through the other fears.

 

 

I think we're through them, or at least very nearly so anyway. Observe, here is a happy boy, with his magic wand laying across him, who slept through the night, went to the potty as soon as he woke up and then while I put on my make-up for work he laid in my bed and told me "Mommy, if you don't put pants on Darth Vader will come and he will shoot you until you put pants on. They won't be owey though, it will just tickle you until you put pants on."

 

Lessons learned:

1) Give your little the lead in creating their special tchotchkes, rituals, or whatever it is that comforts them when they're afraid. His lead-his power.

2) Wear pants while you put on your make-up so Darth Vader doesn't come and shoot you.