Scared Jack

Is there anything worse than seeing your child scared of something? It's gotta be up there pretty high.

Jack's been having accidents at night, after a few months of sleeping fine in underwear. He comes into our room, says he's wet, we go in the bathroom and I clean him up. I guess one night the water wasn't quite warm enough when I did that, because the next night I was soaking the towel -- after waiting for the water to warm up, it takes forever -- and he shrunk away from me, across the bathroom, fearful. It was terrible. "Jack!" I said. "What's wrong?" "I don't want that cold water....no...." I just felt horrible. "I'll warm it up, Jack. I promise. It will be OK." He came back over to me, slowly. I made sure the water was warm.

Today was Halloween at his school, and I brought him and Kate in. First we dropped her off, then brought him up to his room. He was all happy and excited, going down the hallway in his Flash costume. Walked in the room, and it was packed. All the kids in costumes, a bunch of parents. He clung to my leg, nervous, fearful. Kids were saying, "Great costume, Jack!" Miss Ruthie was saying, come, sit down over here, we're decorating cupcakes. Jack just clung to me. He's like this on occasion, at parties and stuff, but these were actually his friends (albeit in costume). What's wrong, Jack, I said. "I want to go home," he said. We didn't, and things got better, but it was pretty bad for a few minutes. I left after a bit to check on Kate. When I came out I saw him, and he was OK, but apparently he'd been crying. Kind of rough.

Later, he was OK. At his cousins. Trick or treating that night. You hope that he's not going to be scared like that again. Or at least, not more than anyone else, I guess.