Every week, Neko’s preschool talks about a letter of the alphabet. A few weeks ago, it was the letter F. Sometime during that week, a firefighter came to visit and brought with him his fire truck. A few weeks later, we were introduced to the book, “Dot the Fire Dog.” Between Dot and the visit by the fire crew, Neko has now developed a full-on fire phobia.
At first, I think it really was fear of fire. When she woke from bad dreams, she was visibly shaking and crying real tears. But now I think we’ve moved on to a new phase that involves 30% fear and 70% desire to stay up late and get extra attention from mom and dad.
I keep finding these articles on parenting sites that encourage me to recognize my daughter’s fear and not minimize it. But omigosh if I have to talk about the safety of our house, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and the like one more time I might need one of those coffees with Bailey’s that is really more Bailey’s than coffee and a long, hot bath.