I could not get my 7 year old son to stay in his bed last night. He kept popping out of his room, claiming he needed another nightlight, another hug & kiss, some more snuggles, to fill up his water bottle, to go pee yet another time, and on and on and on.
After two hours of this, I was, admittedly, not a nice mom. I was snappy, impatient, and downright rude. I wanted to go to bed myself. As I snuggled him for the umpteenth time, he confessed in a shaky voice that he was scared. I harrumphed and informed him that he had no reason to be scared. “You’re almost eight, which is too big to be scared of the dark. We have door locks and fences. You’re in a cozy, safe home with both parents home to protect you for goodness sake.”
He replied with a tiny sigh and said “it was just the time machine episode of wishbone we watched, Mama. Morlocks are scary.”
“It’s just a show! A kid’s show from when I was a kid, don’t be ridiculous. You are safe. You are loved. Stay. In. Bed. Goodnight, I love you.”
None of my words were said lovingly, for the record. I was big mad but trying to not wake my sleeping daughters across the hall.
I left him in his room and plopped down on my bed. After a moment, I decided to look up these “scary” morlocks….and they were creepy. Really creepy. Even to me, as a grown woman with a fully developed, mostly-logical brain. Knowing what I was going to do next, I said a quick “sorry, honey!” to my husband as I hustled back to our son’s room.
I found him wide awake, cowering under his covers. I snuggled in with him and said, “I looked up the morlocks. I’m sorry I was rude about them. They are creepy, huh? Even though we both know they’re made up, I can see how that would be scary for your imagination in the dark. Want to come sleep in my bed?”
Five minutes later, he was sound asleep in my bed, snuggled up against my side.
I’m going to make parenting mistakes in my life. A lot of them. But last night I was able to spot one being made, and decided to repair it as much as I could right away. I hope if you get a chance to see a mistake being made, you take the opportunity to repair it, too.
Disclaimer/Reality Check: I will not include a picture of the morlocks, but if you need nightmare fuel, look them up. I’m sure there are many, many mistakes I haven’t repaired in time, but I’m trying my best. This column will be about motherhood, parenting, and homemaking for the most part. It might be a rampage against low quality children’s literature, or a short poem on my current season of motherhood. Most importantly, I don’t ever want this column to make another mama think she’s not doing enough. If you’re reading this, I want you to know that you are, you’re doing great, keep it up. Sing it with me: no-one is doing it allllll!
