Safety 1st

Ok so I consider myself a pretty good mom. Aware enough of the bad things in the world to let the kids know bad things are possible but not in a way that would scare them silly.  Well, I kinda messed that up tonight.

AS you probably already know we were at the Twins game due to Haylee's school choir singing the National Anthem. It was very exciting for a 4th grader. So it turns out that it is getting dark earlier and earlier so on the way out of the game, away from the bright stadium lights, it was dark out. We are in the city and we go through a parking ramp structure tunnel, as it is the city they have dampened yellowed lights throughout the streets so you can just see far enough to know you won't be hacked down by a machete wielding stranger.

My mind starts developing a cheap storyline to the next horror movie where the unknowingly arrogant suburbanite family walking back from the "expensive" Twins game, probably have a couple bucks in their pockets, at the very least a couple rings and a nice watch, maybe a pair of good shoes and righteous teeth.....but then again, I have this sort of sick morbid humor so I decide to use my spidey senses for good rather than freaking the crap out of myself.

So, being a good mom and seeing this learning opportunity I lightheartedly and fairly softly tell the kids that thinking about safety first, none of us should ever go down barely lit tunnels by ourselves.  why? (well dont these kids know about bad things, what is wrong with them....I think to myself, oh yeah, that's my job.) So still laughingly and trying to convey confidence in our safety as a group (perhaps I look around just a touch more nervously than I should have) I say non-threateningly, gently (learning opportunity remember) "because sometimes bad people who do bad things could be around the corner". I want to be honest, not gloss it over, and I want them to be scared enough to know to be safe and don't want them to become immobilized by the potential fear (because I have a morbid sense of humor, and they are too heavy at this point to carry around) and scare the crap out of them.

So Erik and I are aware of our surroundings, see (and try to ignore) the guy peeing up against that wall across the street, Erik says its time to cross the street, I pointedly say, probably not yet, Erik looks past the street lamp and sees the ---- lets say groupies --- hanging out in about 5 spots of what would be our pathway should we take that route. There are other Twins fans around now but just measly women and wildly unprepared children (what good is that?) but they are still kinda far away. So we stay on the same side of the road and at the well-lit corner some grungy, unwashed dread haired dude with very glassy eyes is trying to stop us; asking for a handout; other normal but rough night owl types come crossing the street on their merry (evil) way... I'm holding Haylee's hand, Erik holding Logan's, doing what we can to portray non-judgement of others and confidence that we weren't going to all die very painful, horrific deaths tonight, all the while continuing mundane, usual conversation.

We get to the parking lot, get in the car are laughing and joking about normal stuff and after a brief moment of silence we hear a small voice from the back say, " Mommy, can we sleep in your bed tonight?" why honey? "cuz I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have nightmares". Logan pipes up, "I'm already having nightmares!"

So, me, even at this point, not realizing the trauma I've just inflicted will cost thousands in therapy, say oh? (laugh) why do you think you are gonna have nightmares? (ha, ha) <Playing it down ALWAYS works right? That's how parents do it right? You educate, you play it down, you take it on yourself so children do not know the horrors of the world. Yeah, that is how you do it...right?!?>  Haylee says in her very best sinister, whispery, crouched over creepy old villain voice, "because bad people are hiding around every corner, waiting to do bad things..."

Erik and I chuckle, look at each other and almost exactly say "yep, that is pretty much what I said".


"No seriously, can we sleep in your bed?"

Uhhhhmmm, oopps?

Who wants to bet when the kids are older and out on the town with their friends at some point in the future, about to reasure their friend that they will be fine walking down that dark alley by themselves; they'll take a couple steps away from their friend and then they will remember the time mom scared them (and they had nightmares for weeks...)with the creepy voice that bad people hide in the dark corners, waiting to do bad things. I don't know, doesn't that just validate the point?

So, the moral of the story.  It must be ok to be crazy as long as it is as a mother rather than being bad crazy -- hiding out in tunnels.