This made me bawl like a baby...

[bisous]

I was reading The Secret of Nimh (the picture book based on the movie) when I came upon the illustration of the rats receiving injections at Nimh. I remembered the absolute horror that scene rendered to me, a very young child when I first saw it. It made me sad to think that needles and shots are so very real for my DS.

I can't figure out attachments so here is a link where I put it on my blog. Let's see if this works....

http://mmejoliefleur.blogspot.com/2008/12/real.html

I thought you guys might understand...

[Barbzzz]

Jen... (((HUGS))) I knew there was a very good reason why I didn't like that story. It didn't hit me till just now. Give me a good ol' fashioned horror story to read to Alex any day of the week. This hits too close to home.

[buggle]

I always tell Brendan how brave and tough he is. Not only does he get a ton of shots every single day -- minimum of 5 and often more -- he has his CGM sensor inserted without EMLA, as well as blood draws without EMLA. I've seen adults carry on and cry like babies about getting blood drawn. And once we took apart the Navigator inserter and looked at it, I'd be scared to have that thing stabbed into me. And the finger pokes... how many millions of those will our kids have in their lifetimes...

So, I totally get being upset by an illustration in a children's book showing shots as terrifying. It really sucks that our kids have to go through this each and every day for their lives.

Did your son see the illustration? If so, what did he say?

[czardoust]

oh jen i remember that movie. it made me so scared, i was like 6-7? i looked at your blog at the picture and omg....no wonder i still have the shivers thinking about it.

[bisous]

Thanks for the comments, guys. I knew that people here would "get" it!

The thing is, when I was 5 years old this was my favorite movie! I LOVED it. Saw it in the theatre and most likely ruined it for everyone else there. According to my mom at the very eventful and suspenseful end I was sobbing "oh NO, oh NO," endlessly and at the top of my lungs!

But the message of the movie is all about courage. I think from Buggle's post I figured out how to reconcile my pre love of this movie with this one image that can be pretty disturbing.

Incidentally, DS didn't say a word to me as we read the book. However, my mom mentioned to me that he asked HER about it when she came over yesterday! Truly, he is as intrigued and perhaps disturbed as I am.

But Buggle, I think what you said about Courage and being Brave really hit the nail on the head. Our kids are required to be SOOO brave. The "punch line" of Secret of Nimh is "Courage of the Heart; is very rare The stone has a power when it's there" which I really think I could explain to DS. It makes the original horror of that scene (which is really horrible) muted at least a little.

I just don't know. Sometimes with this disease I feel like I need wisdom that I really don't have--that I'm just not qualified to handle certain situations!