safe harbor

Thanks to the generosity of a friend, we got to see a movie with Blake last week. The only one all three of us cared anything about was Despicable Me 2, and I have to say, it was not nearly as good as the first. There were charming moments, and there were upsetting moments. A major part of the story is the kidnapping of minions and injecting them with something that turns them indestructible, violent, and purple. As Blake said, repeatedly, "That was creepy. Why would they put that in a movie for kids?"

While Rob and I were getting into bed that night, Blake showed up at our bedroom door, arms full of blankets and his pillow. When he has a nightmare, he has permission to set up a pallet of blankets at the foot of our bed for the rest of the night (he used to wake me up to tell me about his nightmare and ask if he could stay in our room, and then I was often unable to get back to sleep... due to insomnia, not my own fear of the nightmare!). As Blake got situated, Rob quietly voiced his frustration with our son's over-active imagination, and that if purple minions kept him from sleeping in his own bed, then he shouldn't be permitted to watch Star Wars any more either, because Darth Vader was what used to give ROB nightmares! I sometimes agree: Blake will take any excuse to sleep in our room. He loves him a little slumber party!

But that night, God gave me a different perspective. If being near us eases our son's heart, I'll take it. I know that the time when he considers us his shelter is short and quickly coming to an end. A day is coming when he will look elsewhere for comfort or protection. A day is coming when his parents may be the last people he wants to share his fears with. A day is coming when he wouldn't be caught dead sleeping on the floor of our room. A day is coming when he won't believe that we can conquer anything. And as I whispered that to Rob, plus the fact that he's so big already, and he's only getting bigger and braver and moving further from total dependence upon us (as he should), Rob visibly softened, because he is actually a big teddy bear at heart. We held hands, and I thought about my children and my own childhood, of the nights I slept by MY parents' bed after a scary dream, and a tow-headed little boy snuggled into his nest of warmth just a few feet away, content in the knowledge that we were closer than any indestructible purple monster.