But He's Just a Little Boy!

Lately I have been wondering if we shelter Wesley too much. This isn't the first time I have wondered this, but what really brought it home was when he and I were sitting on the couch watching Babe last week. I figured since it was rated G that I had nothing to worry about. Wrong! I totally forgot that there's a scene where wild dogs attack the sheep. The movie shows one of the dogs gnawing on the leg of a sheep, then a moment later it cuts to a shot of the sheep lying on the ground, bleeding from the leg and neck. Poor little Babe starts crying "Ma!" because that's what he named that sheep.

Wesley turned to me at this point in the movie and asked why the pig was crying. I couldn't bring myself to say that the pig was crying because the sheep had died. Instead, I just said he was crying because Ma was hurt.

"Oh! Because the dog hurt her leg!" Wesley replied.

But it got me thinking. Even if I had told Wesley that the sheep had died, I don't think he would have understood. He has no concept of death. When my uncle died, we did not take the boys to the funeral. We didn't take them to the funeral of Duane's grandmother either. None of our pets have died. He has no reason to have the idea of death in his mind.

But we haven't just sheltered Wesley from the idea of death, we don't let him watch anything that isn't on Nick Jr. or Playhouse Disney. I know a lot of kids his age know most of the Disney movies backwards and forwards, but we've only let him watch a few and we're sure to watch with him. No Lion King, or Bambi or anything like that yet. I don't even want to take him to see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs because it's PG and I don't think he could handle it.

The last time we were at the pediatrician, Dr. M asked if we had done the "stranger danger" talk with Wesley yet. We haven't. I know we need to, especially since Wesley is definitely the kid who would help someone "look for a lost puppy." When we went to the fair we were more concerned about him getting lost, so we talked about what to do in that situation. We don't let him go outside to play without an adult, so the stranger danger thing just hasn't come up. To be honest, I'm not even sure how to approach it. Wesley is such a sensitive kid. I don't want to scare him more than is necessary.

And if we haven't talked about stranger danger, you know we haven't talked about right touch/wrong touch. At least not with any purpose. When Dr. M has to check the bits and pieces we tell him that it's OK because that's his doctor and that no one else is allowed to touch him there, but that's been the extent of it.

In my mind Wesley is still such a little boy. Much too little for all that stuff. Yet I know that he'll be starting kindergarten next year and we're going to have to prepare him for the "real world" outside of the house and preschool. But I'll be honest, I don't want to!