I think it is great that schools go through the ‘Stranger Danger’ plan with children. Every school should have this plan and it should include parents (alas, us parents haven’t been included).
The problem is I now have a 5 year old who is obsessed with ‘Stranger Danger’ awareness, to the point she is having nightmares about strangers coming into our house at night and trying to kill us all. This is now a nightly occurrence, and very frightening to witness.
Willow wakes up screaming, convinced there is someone in the house and they are trying to kill her. Naturally, it is me who gets up to her (Les sleeps through the fire alarms which can be heard a block away), and I calm her down and get her off to sleep again, explaining that there is no one in the house and that she is safe. This peace lasts for only a few more hours before I have to get up again.
A conversation with Willow when she was more awake has revealed something rather disturbing – her teacher has told them (a class of 5 and 6 year olds) of people she has known who were killed in their beds as they slept, by strangers. I’m not sure what to make of it, as she does have a very vivid imagination, but she has to have gotten the notion from some where.
Many of the conversations Willow starts with me now are about strangers, and what they are all going to do with us. She asks where we would all hide if a stranger came into our house to harm us. She says she would kick them in the leg and tell them to go away (and she would too!), and hit them in the head until they are dead.
What do I do? Tell her that people do get hurt when they sleep by people they don’t know, but are more likely to be hurt by someone they do know? Do I tell her to stop being silly and that she is safe in this house and to not worry about strangers?
Our over protective society has caused all this, and I for one, am sick and tired of people, particularly teachers, instilling in my children that they are going to be killed when they sleep by strangers!! Why can’t we just give the warnings and leave it at that? Because it is believed a child has to have all the gory details to get the message across!