Then, for special reinforcement needs, we have the magical light bracelet. \u00a0It keeps those pesky monsters away. And the few that slip through, well, Papa takes care of those. \u00a0(You know how many light bracelets I have had to buy in the last week!! – Yeah you can freeze and reuse, but that only works about twice.)<\/p>\n
What I find most fascinating is that after weeks and weeks of me trying to “deal” with the monster crisis, and failing, Papa figured it out in about 2 minutes of actually being made aware that I needed help. \u00a0Papa came to the rescue.<\/p>\n
I tried nurturing, comforting, empathy, acknowledgement, comforting, gentle logic, rationalizing at 2 year old level, acknowledging, nursing, and did I mention comforting, nurturing, and mommy love. \u00a0Guess what? Papa stepped in one afternoon and told his little bug that he was going to take care of her, keep her safe, and EAT THE MONSTERS. \u00a0I freaked – ARHGHGHG!! Don’t tell her that the monsters are inside you now! \u00a0That hit my logic and sense of being all wrong. \u00a0Hell, she<\/strong> was inside me, there surely shouldn’t be any monsters in there!!<\/p>\n I held my tongue however, as we were all together, and I swallowed my stomach. \u00a0I watched… I waited… She pondered his solution for about 10 seconds (while I would have been more comfortable sinking to the bottom of the pool – we were swimming at the moment he decided to explain his special appetite for monsters to her).<\/p>\n About 15 seconds later, she asked him if he was sure he’d eaten all <\/strong>of them.<\/p>\n “Yep! \u00a0And I put ketchup and mustard on them.”<\/p>\n To which she replied, “And peanut butter, and chocolate, and, and, coffee cream??”<\/p>\n And so went the conversation, with Papa patting his “full” belly and her fear subsiding, second by second.<\/p>\n _______________________________________<\/p>\n Now, daily, Papa eats the monsters. \u00a0And if Papa isn’t around and she finds some, Mama either sends them back to their planet, Lils eats’em if they’re baby ones, or we find a light bracelet (her favorite is the blue, when Papa isn’t with us – she has long since assigned blue to Papa as his<\/em> color).<\/p>\n He also taught her to grab a flashlight and face her concerns of there being monsters “in there – wherever” with it on as bright as she can make it shine. \u00a0She clears rooms regularly, with her little LED light and her glow bracelet. \u00a0You should see… and when she gets worried, Papa steps up right behind her and helps her find em, eat’em, and send them back to their own planet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now I can’t decide whether this experience is a twisted, positive one, However, it has given Papa an opportunity to valiantly I still wish she thought monsters were funny – Our choices thrust her into a world of uncertainty, unfamiliar surroundings, and a resulting encompassing insecurity. \u00a0We expected something like this, but hoped keeping her close to us would be enough (like when she was tiny). \u00a0Wrong. \u00a0She is all too aware of everything at this point, and it is making a huge impact on her.<\/p>\n Her mind has resolved to manage her fears and insecurity through the manifestation of monsters. \u00a0This does not make me happy, but I am leaning toward the feeling that I have to find good in this development somehow. And what better good could there possibly be than for her relationship and reliance on her Papa to have blossomed “Well, of course he did!” – Like there was ever any question, or anything else to do but! _____________ Those of you who have some idea of what my family and I are going through right now will understand the title. Furthermore, you will understand what I mean when I tell you that Papa eats […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[51,112,55,56,161,162,57,214,58,273,67,299,69,71,392,409,427,457,581,469,485,493],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-toddlers","tag-attachment","tag-attachment-parenting","tag-childhood-self-esteem","tag-childrens-needs","tag-concrete-thinking-of-toddler","tag-confidence","tag-fathers","tag-fathers-daughters","tag-foundation","tag-instability","tag-marriage-parenting","tag-monsters-security-issues","tag-natural-parenting-attentive-intuitive-nonviolent","tag-parents","tag-responses-to-childhood-behavior","tag-self-esteem","tag-solutions-instead-of-invalidation","tag-the-unfamiliar","tag-toddlers","tag-toddlers-and-monsters","tag-unique-qualities-of-each-parent","tag-value-of-being-a-child"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.childhoodrevered.com\/sentient\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.childhoodrevered.com\/sentient\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.childhoodrevered.com\/sentient\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.childhoodrevered.com\/sentient\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.childhoodrevered.com\/sentient\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.childhoodrevered.com\/sentient\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.childhoodrevered.com\/sentient\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.childhoodrevered.com\/sentient\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.childhoodrevered.com\/sentient\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.partiesinpackages.com.au\/admin\/assets\/images\/bracelets-glow.jpg\" "\\"lights\\"")
<\/p>\n
\nor something I regret for allowing the insecurity to develop
\nand cause the monsters to appear in the first place
\n(we could have refused the relocation, I suppose).<\/p>\n
\nprotect and impart strength to his little girl.
\n_<\/p>\n
\nyou know, like Grover or Cooking Monster.<\/p>\n
\nas a result of him coming to her rescue
\nby developing a ravenous appetite for grumpy monsters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"