pretend

As I've mentioned before, A. is fearful of many, many things.  Her list of things she doesn't want to "get her" before bed is at least 9 things deep and still contains ghosts, witches from Halloween, King Herod from Christmas, and randomly, "things that go ahhh".  She is now afraid of things she has seen on TV in the 1-2 shows that she watches daily.  For instance, the lady "deep freeze" that freezes all of the people on Fresh Beat Band until they figure out that she just can't dance so she doesn't want any one else to dance either.  The ridiculousness of the story is obviously lost on her.  Anyway, A. is afraid that this woman is going to come freeze her. B. had this conversation first and tried to explain that she is pretend just like we are pretending to be someone else in the bazillion times a day that she says, "Mommy, can you talk for my doll?"  or "Daddy, can you make that bear talk?"  She looked at him like he was crazy.  He tried to talk about how the Berenstain Bears are pretend and just in a story and she calmly disagreed and said that they just live in Bear Country far away. 

I tried later to say that the people on TV are called actors and they are just playing just like when she plays dress up.  She countered with what about the Redskins and the "turtles" (aka the Maryland Terrapins).  I was going to go the route that the Redskins are really just pretending to play football but I didn't think that would really help.  B., seeing that I was getting nowhere and really wanted her to be able to sleep said that the deep freeze lady can't get out of the TV so she obviously can't come freeze A. 


So, for now, our child believes that people live in the TV and can't get out.  I by no means think that this was a parenting success.  But, I'm at a loss of how to explain it.  So, any suggestions?

Until then, I will keep encouraging her to "pretend" as much as possible.  Not a hard concept since she wears a costume on a daily basis including each and every one of her Halloween costumes from year one.

The ladybug and the redskin using their Deere mowers

Ming Ming Duck in the grocery store