Welcome to the family, Nanuk

Just before turning 2, J and F began fearing monsters. They'd point to a door, or around a corner, or under the bed, or even up a tree and tell me that there was a monster there. I'd talk it through with them and try to find out what the 'monster' was, but it didn't seem to be a creature that logic could vanquish. We decided if the monsters didn't have to be physical beings, neither did our protectors.
This is when Tiger joined our family. He is a monster scaring extraordinaire, able to put the nastiest of creatures back in their place with a single "Roar!". From that day forward, every time the girls would spot a monster they would call on Tiger and together they would "roar" the sorry beast into oblivion.

Yesterday Miss V spotted a monster. Usually her older sisters are on hand and they quickly send Tiger in to battle. Yesterday, though, Miss V was on her own. I was about to jump in and remind her that her protector was merely a roar away, but something stopped me. It was one of those moments where time went all funny and I seemed to be frozen. I watched as Miss V called on a different protector.

Instead of a "roar", she gave a growl, then lowered her head and growled again.
She announced "Monster gone", and my sense of time kicked in again. I told her she was very strong for dealing with a monster and asked her to tell me more about how she scared it away. She told me, "Nanuk help(ed)." Nanuk is the Inuit name for a Polar bear and Miss V has been fascinated by them since we saw them at Sea World not long ago.

So welcome to the family, Nanuk. I hope you decide to stick around.

2 comments:

Debby said...

I love the way that secure and comforted children actually come up with their own ways of coping. Good parenting, Mom!

jeanie said...

Oh how wonderful - I never thought of that when we dealt with monsters.

We had a magic ring on the bedhead that kept them all away, because they could not be nasty with the power of the magic ring - oh, that and they really didn't like me so if they knew I was around they ran away.

What an empowering way you have used to teach your girls!