I when I was about twelve, my parents let me stay home alone at one night. We lived in a fairly rural area and about a fourth of the property was covered with cedar trees. We also had horses that we locked in their stalls at night with their last batch of hay being given when we tucked them in.
On this particular night, I got engrossed in an old black and white vampire movie. By the time I realized I had not tucked the horses in, it was ten at night and dark.
Well, it was dark except for the large full moon with the clouds scudding across it. I got out to that barn and back in record time. It took me close to an hour to stop shaking from the adrenalin.
I was definitely too old to be afraid of the dark and yet, to this day, being in the dark makes me nervous. As you can imagine, I have a lot of empathy for those children of mine who share my rich imagination and dark-phobia.
Sometimes nightlights aren’t enough. Yes, I am one of those parents. My kids are welcome to leave a light on if that makes them feel more secure.
I just don’t think pushing people to do the things that they fear is healthy. I think they have all grown out of it by the time they are ten or eleven.
Is there a point in time when you feel kids are too old to be afraid of the dark? How do you handle that at your house?
photo credit: Morten Liebach via photopin cc
