As you all know, my sweet boy is extremely sensitive. Here is another sweet/ sad story that also occurred from him learning about space at school.
One day he got off the bus & I immediately knew something was wrong. He just looked sad. I waited until we were inside the house before I asked him what was wrong. Fighting back tears, he said 'Mom...did you know that one time a space shuttle was going into space & it BLEW UP? There was even a teacher on there & she died too! They ALL DIED!' Then he really began to cry. My sweet boy is just so sensitive. I was so frustrated that he had been taught about this in kindergarten! Come to find out, I later learned from his teacher that while she was reading them a story about the space program, one little boy raised his hand & said very nonchalantly (trying to impress the other boys) 'Did you know that a long time ago a space shuttle BLEW UP???? Yeah...it really BLEW UP and everyone died...even a TEACHER!' So, Dawson's teacher had to tell the story, but she tried to add the emotion & respect to her version, that had obviously been missing when the little boy told it. Either way, Dawson had nightmares for weeks. But this is how our first evening went: Derek was out of town, so I had to help Dawson with this by myself. He of course asked me TONS of questions. If you have never been around Dawson, you have NO IDEA how persistent he is. I mean, he does not give up until he has all the answers he wants. So, for hours...and I literally mean hours, he asked every question imaginable. Things like 'How old was the teacher? Did she have blonde hair? Was she married? Did she have kids? What were all the astronauts names? Did they have kids? Why did the space shuttle blow up? Where did the fire start? Were they in space by the moon?' You get the point. Hours. of. questions. Then he got stuck on wanting to know exactly how the astronauts died. He could picture the shuttle exploding, but not the people. He said 'But Mom, how did they die? If the shuttle exploded, then did the astronauts just fall from the sky & no one caught them and that's how they died?' WARNING...here comes some of my bad parenting. I knelt down in front of him, held him by his shoulders, looked him right in the face and said 'Sweetheart, I will pay you $5 if you can just completely forget about this. But, you have to totally forget about it...and you can't ask anymore questions until you are like 8 years old or something.' Like I said, not one of my finer parenting moments, but I was desperate. He contemplated the bargain for a minute & then said 'No Mom, I really want to know how they died.' I took a deep breath & said 'Well baby, the ENTIRE shuttle exploded...and everything that was inside of it exploded.' His eyes were huge for several seconds while he processed what I said, then he screamed 'SO THEIR HEADS GOT CUT OFF?????' Oh boy, why oh why didn't he take the money? Or should I have just lied to him? Parenting is so hard. Especially when you have very sensitive little ones. He was upset off & on all evening. I knew we would be in for a rough night, so I was not surprised when he started screaming for me about 3am. I layed down in bed beside him & he said 'Mom, remember when I was 3 years old and I said that I wanted us to go into outer space on a Spiderman rocket ship? Well, I changed my mind. I think we should just stay here, okay?' And, this is why he is only allowed to watch Disney movies until he graduates High School.
One day he got off the bus & I immediately knew something was wrong. He just looked sad. I waited until we were inside the house before I asked him what was wrong. Fighting back tears, he said 'Mom...did you know that one time a space shuttle was going into space & it BLEW UP? There was even a teacher on there & she died too! They ALL DIED!' Then he really began to cry. My sweet boy is just so sensitive. I was so frustrated that he had been taught about this in kindergarten! Come to find out, I later learned from his teacher that while she was reading them a story about the space program, one little boy raised his hand & said very nonchalantly (trying to impress the other boys) 'Did you know that a long time ago a space shuttle BLEW UP???? Yeah...it really BLEW UP and everyone died...even a TEACHER!' So, Dawson's teacher had to tell the story, but she tried to add the emotion & respect to her version, that had obviously been missing when the little boy told it. Either way, Dawson had nightmares for weeks. But this is how our first evening went: Derek was out of town, so I had to help Dawson with this by myself. He of course asked me TONS of questions. If you have never been around Dawson, you have NO IDEA how persistent he is. I mean, he does not give up until he has all the answers he wants. So, for hours...and I literally mean hours, he asked every question imaginable. Things like 'How old was the teacher? Did she have blonde hair? Was she married? Did she have kids? What were all the astronauts names? Did they have kids? Why did the space shuttle blow up? Where did the fire start? Were they in space by the moon?' You get the point. Hours. of. questions. Then he got stuck on wanting to know exactly how the astronauts died. He could picture the shuttle exploding, but not the people. He said 'But Mom, how did they die? If the shuttle exploded, then did the astronauts just fall from the sky & no one caught them and that's how they died?' WARNING...here comes some of my bad parenting. I knelt down in front of him, held him by his shoulders, looked him right in the face and said 'Sweetheart, I will pay you $5 if you can just completely forget about this. But, you have to totally forget about it...and you can't ask anymore questions until you are like 8 years old or something.' Like I said, not one of my finer parenting moments, but I was desperate. He contemplated the bargain for a minute & then said 'No Mom, I really want to know how they died.' I took a deep breath & said 'Well baby, the ENTIRE shuttle exploded...and everything that was inside of it exploded.' His eyes were huge for several seconds while he processed what I said, then he screamed 'SO THEIR HEADS GOT CUT OFF?????' Oh boy, why oh why didn't he take the money? Or should I have just lied to him? Parenting is so hard. Especially when you have very sensitive little ones. He was upset off & on all evening. I knew we would be in for a rough night, so I was not surprised when he started screaming for me about 3am. I layed down in bed beside him & he said 'Mom, remember when I was 3 years old and I said that I wanted us to go into outer space on a Spiderman rocket ship? Well, I changed my mind. I think we should just stay here, okay?' And, this is why he is only allowed to watch Disney movies until he graduates High School.
2 comments:
Alyssa,
This story just broke my heart! But there is a blessing of having a very sensitive little boy. They grow up to be sensitive men and wonderful fathers. You're raising him well.
What a tender-hearted little guy you have there! That kid of compassion will carry him far in life.
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