Heidi

Well, M's old enough to follow story lines with movies and I remembered that we had an old Shirley Temple movie - Heidi.

J put the movie on in her playroom and we watched TV in the living room. According to J, as soon as Shirley Temple showed up on screen playing with the goats and generally being a cute little girl, M was hooked.

After about a half hour, we hear this wailing and crying coming from M as she's running in to us.

"I don't like it," she wailed with huge crocodile tears streaming down her face.

"Sweetie, what's wrong? Did you hurt yourself?" I asked while wiping the tears from her face and giving her a big hug.

"I don't like the movie."

"What don't you like about the movie?" I ask.

"I don't want to talk about it. It makes me sad!" she cries with tears still streaming down her face.

I mean, this kid was inconsolable. Really.

So, I went back to her playroom to see what had made her so upset. As soon as I saw what was on the screen, I understood.

Heidi was taken away from her Grandpa by her Aunt.

Then the memories resurfaced. I was a very sensitive child and hope that M is not as susceptible to being as sensitive as I was growing up. Mom called it "wearing my heart on my sleeve". I remember crying when Heidi was taken away, too. Sometimes its hard to see your kid go through the throws of something that's devastating to them, but you know it's not all that bad.

To get M's mind off the movie, we had her take a bath. When it looked like she was calmed down, I tried to get her to talk about why she was so sad. Then the tears started up again.

Whew.

I know from experience with M that if she doesn't conquer her fears early on, then they just get bigger and bigger. So, I told her that I would sit and watch Heidi with her because it has a happy ending - really.

We watched more of the movie and she was really doing well - until the Christmas scene. Dad had given Clara a beautiful china doll for Christmas. Clara's gift to her Dad was to show him that she could walk. While trying to walk, Fraulein, the lady who watches over Clara when Dad is away on business, drops the doll and it breaks into tiny pieces.

Waaaaaaah. "That hurts my feelings!"

She then said that she was tired and had to go to bed. While tucking her in, she asked what present Clara was going to get now that her doll is broken. I told her that her daddy is very rich and would buy her a brand new one to replace the doll that was broken.

(Sigh)

I never knew that Heidi is a harsh mistress for a five year old. . .