We spent the entire day in the car. Our progress was delayed by traffic jams and multiple accidents, some of them frighteningly serious – we saw one car that had the entire top section squashed down – I can only hope the passengers survived, but it didn’t look good…
We have been dealing with some very clingy sleeping habits by our younger son, J. Before our vacation, he would elicit a promise from whichever parent was doing the bedtime routine. The promise? “When I’m scared at night, will you come in and get me?”
But, while we we away, in a different house, he managed to walk the few steps from his bed to ours, and sometimes, he didn’t even make that migration, a he didn’t insist that we come for him.
But now, back in our familiar home, where he knows exactly where we are, he wants us to come in to him, and get him from his bed when (note the “when”, not “if”) he’s scared, and escort him to our bed, AND turn on the light for him! And he repeated this plea for the promise over and over again.
What’s up?
He is an anxious child. So unlike his brother. We laughed about it at Disney World, because he was actually frightened by the Tomorrowland PeopleMover, listed as “Fun for everyone”. By the end of our trip, he was proud of the rides he was not scared about, but they were all still the most non-threatening rides.
His brother is such a dare-devil – I keep wondering, what is the key to helping J shed his anxiety? My daughter was, and is now, very independent, and S is totally independent (in fact, in his case, helping him deal with his vulnerability is the key challenge), but J is a Nervous Nelly, and I honestly don’t know how to deal with that.
I keep encouraging his successes at being independent, and he keeps accomplishing more. Is this enough? I can’t tell.
But, we sure would like to see him stay in his bed through the night…Sigh.
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