She Likes Spooks

My daughter likes scary things. Scary movies (the animated Monster House and the like, we’re not talking the Friday the 13th series. She’s 4.), scary books (i.e., the Halloween variety, ‘monsters in the attic’ or ‘under the bed’ themes), and playing monster related games. I like that she’s into the spooks.

We go to the library once each week to get books and rotate the kids’ videos for the ‘snack and video’ segment of our evenings administered before bedtime. We’ve been doing this for several years. Result? They love books and going to the library.

We read books to the kids before bed. The girl gets three books read to her and the boy gets 2-3 chapters of his chapter books read to him. The girl’s preference? Scary ones. Here we are in January and she still picks, with the help of the lovely Wife Klem, two or three Halloween books each week.

I like seeing the kids’ personalities develop, even if it’s not immediately to my liking:

“Would you rather watch football with daddy or get eaten by monsters,” I asked the girl not long ago.

“Get eaten by monsters,” she chose with a smile.

I hoped it was the football watching she had a problem with and not an activity with her old man that drove her to choose the monsters. I later thought that as much as she likes monsters, maybe losing out to that choice doesn’t necessarily place me in a deep hole.

Either way, if you’ll please excuse me, I must prepare for a strategy session. We’ll be playing Monster Madness, a board game, at some point this weekend and I will be playing for victory.
-klem