Night fears and Nazis

Nazi Rolf

This afternoon (I was working at home), Kieran came to tell me that if Nick asked me about the Nazis, I should tell him that they do not exist in real life. Okay...

About five minutes later, Nick came to quiz me. I have a hard time lying to my kids...so I told him the Nazis lived in Europe a long time ago, and he said "so the Nazis did not ...come to our land?" (I wasn't going to go into the Neonazis!) Thank you, "Sound of Music"!

Scariest Nazi in my movie memories
(Raiders of the Lost Ark)

Then followed questions such as "Did God make the Nazis?," "Why did the Nazis hate everyone?", and "Dad said that you should say 'I love you Nazis, and then they'd leave you alone.'" As I imagined Nick saying he loved the Nazis, I decided to pull Mike into the conversation (he misunderstood what Mike had said).

This followed Kieran having a nightmare Monday night because Chris had told him about Sweeney Todd. He calmed down and felt better when I told him that Johnny Depp played the barber..."Oh, Johnny Depp! He's okay!"

Back to the Nazis..."Why do they hate everyone?" "Why were they born?" "So they were trying to make everyone's lives miserable?" "Why were they evil?" And "Does God wear a robe?" (Not sure what that has to do with the Nazis!!)

It continued to bedtime, when he started fretting about sleeping alone and wanted to know why he couldn't sleep with us. "Are the Nazis in hell?" "Why did they say 'Heil Hitler'?" "Why do they still have Nazis in movies?" I had to give him more hugs than usual and assure him that all the doors were locked, we don't have Nazis in Portland, and nothing would happen to him. Still, he appeared at the top of the stairs at 3:30 a.m., crying.

I realize I'm lying when I say there are no more Nazis, which makes me feel guilty!! Poor little guy--there's nothing worse than childhood fears.

After several years of coming downstairs in the middle of the night to sleep in a sleeping bag on our floor, in recent weeks he'd finally outgrown that and was sleeping through the night. Now we're back to the night waking, thanks to those damn Nazis!