EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

The monster in the bedroom

Dealing with child's fear

"Once, when my daughter was three years old, I heard a terrified scream coming from her bedroom. I went charging in to see what was wrong and found Jessica sitting on her bed screaming that there was a monster in her room. When I couldn't find it, she said that I had frightened it when I came into the room and it was hiding under the bed. We got down on our hands and knees and looked. She assured me that this was her very own monster. I said that since it was her monster and she had created it she could make it any size she wanted. She could make it bigger. That was too frightening. She could also make it smaller. That pleased her and she shrank it down to a comfortable teddy bear size.

That night we went out for dinner, and nothing would do but that Jessica take her now-friendly monster with her. On the way home, there was a wail from the back seat and Jessica was tearfully explaining that she had forgotten her monster in the restaurant. Her brother, a sophisticated six, said, 'That's all right, Jess, I have him in my pocket'".

Will McDonald

In An Insider's Guide to Submodalities

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