SCARED

Her room.  The hallway.  The light.  The dark.  The stairs.  The bathroom.  The garage.  The laundry room.  The walk-in pantry.  Drew is afraid of all of these things.  It's not monsters or spiders or whatever else may possibly lurk there, she's just scared.  "What are you afraid of?"  "I'm just scared."  It's awful because if it was one thing I could remedy that, or at least try.  I'm creative and patient, I could do that.  But the general I'm scared I can't do anything about.  This isn't a really new problem, I blogged about it back in October.  Now it's constant and worse, though. 

Sleeping in our bed is not an option.  The kids sleep with us on very rare occasions and it's very special.  If being scared warrants a night in our bed then we'd have a permanent companion in bed and that's just not going to happen.  Our bed is our bed.  I'm not willing to break the crack addiction (sleeping with us) so we're just not going there.  She can sleep on our floor.  She can sleep on the couch.  She can sleep in the hallway.  And she has.  She's actually never asked to come into our bed but I know if I suggested it she'd jump at the chance and the nonsense of being scared would be over.  I shouldn't say nonsense.  It's very real to her and I know that.  I try and stay patient.  It's very frustrating, though.

I appreciate all the suggestions I've received and I think I've tried every single one of them.  The only one we haven't tried is having William and Drew sleep in the same room.  My friend, Lacy, suggested that and it may be a solution.  William often asks to go to bed about 15 minutes before bedtime.  He wants his blinds pulled and his door closed.  He's often asleep before I even have Drew's pj's on.  He's just ready for sleep by 7:45pm.  I'm not sure he'd be thrilled with a visitor.  And I don't want Drew to become dependent on him, either.  It's a good suggestion, though, and one we may try in the next few nights.

I used to be a 'fraidy cat and I can remember how awful it was to just be scared.  I'm hoping this passes soon.  For her sake and ours. 

Here she is, tonight.  Off to put her in her own bed.  It's likely that within the hour she'll be back down sleeping on the couch.  Honestly?  I'd be way freaked out to sleep on the couch in the dark by myself and I'm a grown up. If she only knew how awesome and not-scary her room was.  Instead she sleeps 3x a week in the room that has the most windows AND the fireplace.  Ugh, no thanks....

Pretty girl on the stairs

Oh, and the phone?  So she could call daddy if she got too scared.