Sunday, September 7, 2008

Scarred by Movies


Thank you so much for all of you who replied back to my "cry of help" regarding Isaac and his bedtime terror. I'm so greatful to know that when I need advice- you will be there for me. We still intend to use every bit of advice that was given, however we think we have finally figured out why our son is unable to sleep through the night. After a long drawn out tearful conversation with my mom she posed the obvious question "What happened or was going on a month ago when this all began?"
So- that is what I did. To be honest, Doug came up with this conclusion several weeks ago and I just must not have been listening. Roughly a month ago we allowed Isaac to watch the movie Zathura in his room by himself before bed. Now he has seen this movie several times, both with us and without us- but always during the day and never in his room. Zathura is not meant to be a scarey movie for kids but considering the situation during his viewing- it was. Zathura is about two boys who play a game that spin their home into outerspace where they encounter alien creatures who like to eat humans (sounds much worse then what it is). The movie ends happily of course, but we believe that story line haunts him at night before bed.
What makes this situation even worse is the fact that we allowed him to watch another similar movie within a week of that. The 2nd movie is Spiderwick Chronicles. Yet another movie that he has watched with us and never been frightened from. However we feel that the mix of both movies with some frightening images and content for a 5 year old- have scarred our little guy. I of course feel horrible as a parent for making such decisions. We no longer will allow him to watch those movies and are doing much better about screening all other shows.
So now we are taking baby steps to getting him adjusted back to normal. He fell asleep on his own and slept in his own bed for 2 years. We know he will be able to do it again one day. He's already making progress. We have decided to use a reward chart as well which he's excited about. So once again, thank you all for your great advice. I'll be sure to keep you posted on his progress!

2 comments:

Trina said...

Good thing you figured it out. Mom did mentioned that you were able to get some more sleep. I bet that made all of you feel better. I hope he's feeling better as well and gets over these nightmares fast, for all of you.

Unknown said...

Yea for answers!!!!