Cutches

This post is also about two months late, but it deserves to be blogged about. 

 

Ollie is (well, was) full-on freaked out by crutches.  (Cutches, according to Ollie.)  Full-on.

I really cannot pin point how this all started, but interesting conversations began happening in the grocery store. 

 

Mama, oh no, oh no, don't go down there (down that aisle)!  

What? Why?

Just turn!  Turn the cart! Don't go!.... Oh okay, it's okay now.

What?

Maybe we can win.  Maybe we can win and be out first.

What?

 

This happened two or three times over the course of a couple months before I realized he was freaking out when he saw someone on crutches in the grocery store.  Not a wheelchair, not a motorized shopping cart, just a mini-panic attack upon seeing crutches. 

 

We started talking about it at home.

 

Hey, bud. Those are called crutches.  They actually help people when it's hard for them to walk because they hurt their foot or something.

I just don't like them.  I don't like seeing them.

Why?

They are just too scary. 

Do you know what they are used for?

No.

(Explanation follows highlighting the usefulness of crutches.)

I'm just too scared.  I don't want to see them.

What part is so scary? Are you scared of getting hurt?

No.  Cutches are scary.

What part?

Just when they do this... (Ollie gets up and imitates using crutches, complete with hopping on one foot and dragging the other foot behind him.  I die laughing at this point but try to hide it by coughing and biting my lip.)

Oh yeah?  That's the scary part?

Yeah.  It's just so scary when they do that. 

(More lip and cheek biting.  Also this is about when I start telling Jon about this new phobia.  More death by laughter ensues.)

 

I think maybe now that I have explained how helpful people find crutches, this will ease his fears.  Nope.  Every time we pull in to the Sam's or Wal-Mart parking lot he begins talking about how he just hopes we don't see anyone with crutches.  When we do see someone with crutches, he declares it a win if we don't have to walk out of the store at the same time as the injured.  "Good job, Mom!  You did it!  We beat the cutches!"

 

We talk about it more at home. 

 

He begins telling me he is afraid at bedtime. 

 

Mama, don't leave.  I'm just so scared!

Oh man, that's no fun.  It's no fun to feel scared.  What are you scared of?

Cutches.  What if someone with cutches comes into my room?

 

Trust me when I say that we did all the right parent things and stayed with him until sleep on the scariest nights, but we were also truly cracking up about the crutches crisis.  I'd had him imitate the scary one foot hop and one foot drag to Jon, just so he had a better mental picture during the death laughs. 

 

He begins telling me he is afraid every night at bedtime. 

I decided that we are going to face these fears.  The next day while Seth and Jon are out of the house, I tell him that we are going watch some people use crutches on the computer (youtube).  He is intrigued, but immediately very nervous.  I tell him that I'm going to get the computer and that we can watch some people together.  He thinks about that, and literally begins screaming.  (You guys, I am laughing so hard right now remembering this!!)  He is screaming his head off, runs in his room and slams the door.  I go get the computer and go get him.  He is screaming so loud and has shoved himself in the gap between his bed and wall, head first.  I have to drag him out of there and hold him in my lap.  I turn on a pt/ot type video of a girl learning to use crutches and have to forcibly remove his hands from covering his eyes.  He is still screaming. 

 

We watch this video. 

 

Once the people on the video start talking, he quiets down, eager to hear.  He intently watches the video.  I ask a few gentle questions during and after the video.

Did it look like she was scared?

No!

Was she going to cry?

No! 

What did her face look like?

Happy!

Why do you think she looked happy?

She liked cutches!

 

We watch a few more similar videos and I remember I have clothes in the washing machine.  I tell Ollie I am going to go put some laundry in the dryer.  He responds by yelling, "No!!!  Don't leave me alone with cutches!!!"  I chuckle again and he comes with me to switch the laundry and then spends close to an hour and a half watching crutches videos.  He concludes that no one cries while using crutches and more people have a smiling face than not. 

 

We watch these videos again and again when he asks over the next few days and weeks.  I can now leave the room when crutches are on.  Progress!  He begins telling me things like, "I don't think I'm gonna be afraid if we see crutches, but I just don't know" when we are in the Wal-Mart parking lot.  More progress!  We do in fact see crutches again, and he handles it like a champ.  He starts telling me that even if we see crutches, that isn't scary to him.  The ultimate challenge happened when we were at the Goodwill Pound Store recently and they had a whole trash barrel full of crutches.  He wanted to walk over and gawk, but didn't break out in a cold sweat.   

 

The cherry on top for me is now that he is over his fear, when his friends come over he asks them if they want to watch cutches on the computer.  It is super hard to explain (and yet again comical) "why doesn't Eefin want to watch cutches?" 

 

To each their own, kid.  To each their own.  And you are truly one of a kind.