Ghosts

Alyssa’s been extra clingy lately. She’s asked to have someone go with her upstairs anytime she needs to go get something. She wants to follow me down to the basement each time I go to transfer laundry from the washer to the dryer.

She turns on every light in her path on the way to the bathroom and when I do give in and go upstairs with her she wants to hold my hand during the climb.

I asked her last night what was wrong. This had been going on for about a week.

She shrugged at first. I recalled her description of a bad dream she had the night before and suggested that perhaps she’s finally old enough to be too young to watch House reruns with me on Saturday nights.

She said no, it isn’t House.

She finally admitted that her fears are from a book she got from the school library about ghosts. This book described ghostly activity from state to state and it gave definitions for ghosts, poltergeists, etc. When she first showed me the book I didn’t think anything of it. I don’t tend to police her reading material. She’s usually a Junie B. Jones kind of reader so I figured anything branching out from that wasn’t a bad idea.

I was wrong.

No more books about ghosts for her. At least not until the fifth grade.

Last night she needed me to lay next to her as she fell asleep. I don’t mind this so much. Really. I can move as soon as she’s asleep. But when I had to do it for something like this? It’s just silly.

I didn’t tell her the fears she had were silly, though. I just explained that ghosts aren’t real. I told her that the things she read about are unsubstantiated and most people go through their entire lives without ever seeing anything that even might be a ghost. I’m not sure she was comforted.

I also promised to stop saying things in a creepy voice like, “Don’t be afraid little girl.” I am ashamed to admit that I’m guilty of that one. I’ve probably scarred her for life.

I’m also not so sure about the House episodes. I think it might be time to cut her off. Part of her bad dream the other night was that she was viewing an autopsy and the top of the man’s head had been cut off. Yeah, that happened in a House episode we’d just watched.

Parental discretion, indeed.