Reality Shock

Today I traumatized my daughter. She had wanted to go see Dora, and after a little clarification on that (a Dora movie?) I explained that Dora wasn't real, rather pretend. Same with Berenstein Bears and other stories we often told her. She was quickly in tears, which sleep-deprived little me hadn't quite expected. I quickly told her that not all the stories we tell her are pretend. Some are pretend and some are real. The stories we tell her about Jesus are real--same with those about Lehi and Nephi. "When Daddy and I tell you stories, would you like us to tell you if they are real or pretend?"

"Yes!" she wailed.

"Okay, we'll have to tell Daddy that." I was sure he'd appreciate the heads up on this!

When she looked up at me again with those sad, blue eyes, she caught me off guard: "Is Rebecca real?" (We have a version of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm for younger readers.) Oh, this will certainly release the floodgates again.

"No," I answered truthfully, digging for some way to restore the calm. "Rebecca isn't real. But there were many girls who lived with their aunts long ago. There were many girls who rode in stagecoaches to stay with their aunts."

"What were their names?" she asked through her tears.

"I don't know," I answered, frustrated with my lack of success, "we'd have to find out." Then, inspiration hit: "But Laura and Mary and their Ma and Pa are!" (Again, we have a version for younger readers.) Phew. Though she didn't recover completely right away, knowing Laura was real helped, which I quickly took advantage of. I explained that when Laura was all grown up, she wrote down stories about what it had been like when she was a child, living with her family in the woods.

"Can we go see them?" Did she have to ask that?

"No, she died a long time ago." Over her renewed cries I continued desperately, "but we can still read about what it was like for her growing up with her Ma and her Pa and her sister Mary and baby sister Carrie!" Back to digging again, sigh. "And we can read about other people who've written down their stories. Some of your great-great-grandparents wrote down what it was like to live a long time ago. Would you like to read some of their stories?"

"Yes," she wept.

"Okay, we'll do that."

I think it's going to take a while for her to get over this.