The Bee Movie

So forgive me if this is a really long post. If it bores you just skip it- unless however you spend a lot of time with us. If you do and you don't want to read all of this...just please don't ever mention the Bee Movie around Hailey! Here's why:

Several weeks ago I went to the store and bought 10 boxes of General Mills cereal all with pictures of the Bee Movie on them. With that I earned 2 free movie tickets. I was quite proud of myself and even blogged about it. (You faithful readers probably remember this. And by the way I am finding out about more and more readers yet you never comment. So if you know who you are- please occasionally leave a comment!!) Anyway....I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for Scott and Hailey to have a little father-daughter date. I remember my dad used to take Becky and Me out - in fact I vividly remember him taking us to our first movie. That is a whole other story.

So Scott and Hailey head out to the movie. He even goes all out and buys her candy/pop/popcorn. Apparently she was totally into it but about halfway through said she had a tummy ache and wanted to go home. So Scott takes her home and she did look sick. I thought maybe her ears were hurting again. A few hours later she seemed fine.

Fast forward to the last couple of weeks. Hailey has seemed really quirky about some things to us. We were thinking it must be a stage. She always wanted the pantry door closed. In fact as soon as I opened it she would say, "And don't forget to shut the pantry door Mom." It was constantly being shut by her when I was in the middle of cooking. She also started refusing to walk through the garage! She would insist on walking through the front door and then in the garage. It was getting a little annoying because we had to let her out the front door, open up the garage door, get the little girls in and come back and lock the front door. And if it was dark she would insist one of us walk with her. As soon as we got home she would say, "Don't forget....I go around and through the door....don't put the garage door down." I was ready to say forget it...just come through the door like the rest of us. But now I am really glad I didn't!!

Another thing....she usually loves going to the store with me. Last Thursday I went to the 12 hour cereal sale at Super One. (Incredible cereal deals by the way.) She freaked out and got in the cart and buried her head the entire time. As I stacked boxes of cereal around her and proceeded throughout the store thinking she must be getting sick or something. Then she started saying she never wanted to go grocery shopping again. I asked her why and she said, "Well...as long as we don't buy cereal I will go." Very quirky I thought...but anyway....

So last week Scott finds a little bee buzzer in one of the cereal boxes. He gives it to Karis thinking what fun little toy. Karis agrees and starts trying to buzz Hailey with it who totally freaks out...crying....screaming...running away. I quickly get rid of the buzzer but only after trying to show Hailey it wasn't scary. "See Hailey- come here...this is all it does...bzzz." Screams from Hailey..... A couple days later we get a free bee spoon from the cereal box and Scott leaves it out on the counter. When Hailey gets up I show it to her...."Isn't this cute - it's like from your date with Daddy". She goes hysterical...."Throw it away Mommy and I don't ever want to go on a date with Daddy again!!"

OK...so the pieces start to come together....for Scott anyway....not me the oblivious one. We keep the extra cereal in the garage by the door. The rest is in the pantry......So last night we ask her..."Are you afraid of the cereal with the Bee Movie on it?" She starts crying, and runs under the bar and buries her face. Scott and I nearly start crying. We have never seen her this terrified. So the big, brave Daddy who has now earned the "Lifetime Hero" award in Hailey's world goes out to the garage, takes all the cereal out of the boxes and throws the boxes, "far, far away". The whole time Hailey is crying while I am talking with her, praying with her, and reciting whatever scripture regarding fear and safety that I can think of. She kept saying, "I don't ever want to talk about it again. Don't talk about it OK?"

So......we all went out to ice-cream. She still wouldn't walk out the door but we did notice her straining to see where the cereal boxes used to be. She was looking to make sure they were all gone. We are hoping she forgets about this soon....but until then....we will just let her walk through the front door and try to keep her from seeing any Bee Movie items. Thankfully it didn't seem to be a huge blockbuster hit with tons of paraphernalia produced so hopefully that was the end of it!

And since God's timing is so exact and He cares about even childhood fears He allowed me last week to read Chapter 8 in Grace-Based Parenting..."The Freedom to Be Vulnerable". The author was talking about childhood fears and how as a grace-based parent we shouldn't downplay our kid's fears or try to just give them just the facts....because their fears are very real, and they are very emotional and they don't have perspective like we as adults do. In fact there are many examples of people in the Bible crying out to God with their fears and Him comforting them...which is what we are to do with our children. Had I not read that I probably would have been, "Hailey...just walk through the garage...this is ridiculous.....come on.....we're in a hurry....let's go." I am so glad the Holy Spirit convicted me to just let her do her thing and to walk along side her because I think to have forced her past the scary Bee cereal boxes would have really traumatized her!! So there's my really long post. I hope someday she will be able to laugh about this but for now NO MORE BEE MOVIE on the cereal!!!