24 March 2010

The Trouble With Monsters

Before she started daycare, A came running out of her playroom and nearly bowled me over, shrieking, "MOSSTURS!!" "Monsters?" "YETH! MOSSTUR!!"

Since then, she has shown me where she sees the monster by the ceiling or in her closet or under her crib...and we don't know where she picked this up. Being Irish and therefore naturally superstitious, I have decided that the house is haunted. M is a little more pragmatic and has declared me silly.

Haunted or not, silly or not, the fact remains that A sees monsters. Everywhere. Except lately...
she doesn't. Now, she looks for them everywhere. Last night, we hunted high and low for monsters. She looked under the rugs, she looked under her kiddy chair and table. She looked around corners and behind doors. Finally, she informed me that wanted to play with the closet monster. I shrugged and opened the closet for her only to find Elmo. The closet monster in question.

"Whoever made those muppets monsters is a genius!" proclaimed M.

But she still fears other monsters and I'm in awe of this. Why? Simply because we've never told her about monsters. We don't talk about them. Daycare doesn't tell stories about monsters. Her television shows don't touch on them. So...where did she ever get the idea that there was a monster in her playroom to begin with those many months ago?

I can't help but wonder if it isn't something innate to the human psyche, that ancient subconscience I'm convinced that we all, in some small way, have with us.

Tonight, on our walk, she ran down the street waving a bug-catching net and yelling, "I CATCH WOOZLE!" OK. I know where she got that one. But on the way home, in the twilight of evening, she stopped suddenly and said, "Mosstur?" "Are you going to catch a monster?" I replied...

"YETH!"

And we were off again on another monster hunt.

But still...I wonder...

Have your kids ever surprised you with what they "know" when YOU know that they haven't been told yet? How about monsters anyway?

1 comments:

LMAlphonse said...

Absolutely!

I used to tell my big kids (and now tell my little kids) that scary things are afraid of lovely things. So, Monsters are afraid of love, nice smells, and interesting pictures on the walls of your room. I'd spritz floral perfume around the room at bedtime, paying special attention to whatever spots my kids were most worried about (in the closet, under the bed), with an extra spritz on the pillow, to "give good dreams." Ta da! The kids could smell the perfume, which means the monsters could too, so they "knew" it was working...

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