JJ has a thing at the moment about being kidnapped. He brings up the subject pretty regularly and talks about ways of coping with it if someone tried to kidnap him, ie physically trying to get away from them.
I keep telling him it’s really unlikely that he ever will be kidnapped but he obviously thinks about it a great deal.
Last night he woke me up by telling me he’d just had a nightmare. He was pretty distressed and even though my sleeping has been abominable over the last few nights due to the heat I asked him what he’d dreamt about. He told me that he’d been kidnapped and that Nana and Pop had been killed. I don’t think the two events were related but he was pretty upset.
He hopped onto my bed (not into because it was too hot to worry about bedclothes last night) and we had a hug while I tried to reassure him. After some reassurance I was able to send him back to his own bed and he was fine for the rest of the night.
Because he’s worried about kidnapping I wondered if other kids fear the same thing, and sure enough, they do.
I found a couple of articles that talk about children’s fears and strategies for dealing with them.
Just as well we’re not Haitians – child kidnapping is rife there at present.
Luckily he’s not too afraid that it’s completely debilitating, but his fear is there just the same. What are your kids afraid of?
I hope JJ is getting some more rest. I have one child that sometimes wakes up crying, but can’t say what has made her sad. At least JJ can articulate what has made him upset.
Thats no good about his nightmare….my daughter sleepwalks and its very unnerving…
Poor kid, he may have heard snippets of the news reports of the kids being kidnapped 🙁
Hope things settle down for him soon.
Oh poor little JJ. Kids get the craziest things in their heads sometimes Jen. It will pass. I’m glad you’re able to reassure him and he can go back to bed; that tells me that he’s not too obsessed with it. I agree with one of your other commenters that he must have heard or seen things on the news about reports of this kind of stuff that made him think about it. I hope his fear goes away soon Jen. Love, Joy
We have to take seriously what our kids are afraid of, otherwise they will carry it until they grow old. The best thing to do is to reassure them and be three for them, just like what you are doing. 🙂
My daughter is desparately afraid that her heart will stop during the night and of death.
It is horrible, because although we would love to promise our children it will never happen we have to counter those horrible stories of when it does to others.
All we can do is assuage their fears as best we can.