Scary Movies

So, lately I've been rocking Elena to sleep while watching some show or movie. It gives us some wind-down cuddle time. We'll watch things like How It's Made or Modern Marvels. I had recorded some G-rated movies for this purpose too. Charlotte's Web was a big hit. Alice In Wonderland (Disney's) was good too. Ratatouille was good.

However, I, not thinking, started into perhaps the scariest movie for her at this age: An American Tail. Now you might be thinking, "Oh, well sure. It's the cats -- they're portrayed in a really scary way." Nope. It was something far more existentially disturbing to her: the thought of being lost from her Papa.

"Where's Papa??" she would ask.
"Fievel's looking for his Papa. He's going to keep trying until he finds his Papa."
"Where's Papa????" she would ask, tears coming into her eyes, her lip starting to curl. "He find his Papa??"

Fievel calling "Papa! Papa! Where are you?" and Papa not responding and not being there... this was a danger she understood quite clearly, it seems.

I would assure her that he would keep looking. I would point out when something good happened to Fievel. "Oh look! Fievel found a friend!" "Oh look! Fievel found someone who will help him look!" It was no good. The issue of Fievel not being able to find his papa was so deeply disturbing that the rest of the story didn't matter a jot. Of course, the suspense-building mechanism of having Fievel and his parents pass each other but not notice each other didn't help things either--it just reinforced the continuing fact of their separation. And it was obvious she wasn't going to sleep until this had resolved itself. Indeed she was quickly losing trust in my assurances that it would even resolve.

Realizing this, and wanting to restore her calm before she slept, I fast-forwarded to the reunion scene, and was glad this movie happened to have a happy ending. I made sure to drive home the point that Fievel found his papa and that they found him. They're very happy they found each other. It took a while for that to sink in. We had to watch all the way through the credits and a little more of Charlotte's Web before her everything-is-alright-in-the-world was restored.

Well, she's not going to go getting herself lost purposefully any time soon.