Years of Child Therapy in 3...2...1...

  

This photo has brought so much discussion for me (Thanks Dad!) ha ha. So, I thought I would post it and tell you why.

I saw this on Pinterest a few weeks ago and it reminded me of my childhood visits with my good ol' dad. :) My dad would always show me movies like Chuckie, Night of the Living Dead, Poltergeist, Kujo (Stephen King) and House 1 & 2. He would read me scary stories in old books in the dark with blankets over our heads while we held flashlights (or torches as they call them here in AUS). All of this at the ripe age of five years old. 

I used to get so scared and wouldn't want to go to bed so my dad would have to put a VHS in of My Little Ponies or Rainbow Bright so that I could fall asleep. I couldn't kneel next to my bed at nights to say prayers because of that *bleeping* clown under the bed in Poltergeist. In fact, I JUST started to be able to kneel next to my bed about five years ago. I used to ask my dad if I could sleep in his room after all of the night time movies and he would tell me that I only could if I could get up in the middle of the night and run across the house in the dark, all by myself. ...And I did it! I remember having the blanket over my head with one eye looking out and scouting out my "make a break for it" plan. I could see from my bedroom door all the way across the house to my dads bedroom. Then I would run as fast as my little legs would carry me and would usually be running and tripping on stuff (to add to the scariness in the dark) and ran and slipped into my dads bed with him.

When I was probably about 18 months or two years old, I remember my dad putting on this scary mask from Taylor Maid's costumes. I was still wearing a diaper and remember running down the hall away from him. I was too short to be able to open both of the closed doors at the end of the hall so i turned around and backed into the corner. I actually remember being confused just knowing that the monster coming towards me was my dad, but then again, why did he look as scary as the depths of hell? He came at me with his arms out to tickle me and I just started crying. He took his mask off and picked me up and gave me a hug while he laughed. 

...It was only the beginning of my need for child therapy.

*disclaimer*
i think this is funny now and have had no actual need for child therapy from these incidents. i don't however recommend trying them at home. no child was harmed in the making of my childhood.