What’s up with the clowns?

I can’t do scary! 

In middle school I watched a Freddy Cougar (Cruger?) movie and didn’t sleep for weeks. That water bed scene scares me every time I look at it. That fear was still very real when I got married and handsome had a water bed! 

My objection to being scared probably has a lot to do with my aversion to Halloween. Maybe it’s not the costumery…although, the whole dressing up thing does wear me out. 

We don’t watch scary movies or even the commercials on TV. We don’t go to haunted houses. We don’t approach creepy houses or pretend that we are brave when we are trick or treating. 

Fear is the worst. 

I try to protect my kids from scary things too. I try to. But despite my dedication to protecting and shielding them from the stuff of this world, scary stuff still creeps in. 

What is the deal with the clowns? Why is it in my Facebook feed? What are you even talking about? 

This clown madness has trickled into the elementary school.  And that fear has infiltrated my kids thoughts and dreams. Sister has been having nightmares this week but she didn’t tell me why or what was happening. 

It was the Clowns! 

We rushed in from church tonight. She locked the doors and begged me not to go to the chicken coop and lock them in. She even got upset when I had to go back out to get my phone. 

What is this fear? It’s totally not okay. 

I sat with her for a few minutes and let her get the sobbing out. I listened as my sweet sister girl gushed about how afraid she was. And I’m powerless to fix this for her. No matter what words I say, she’s not going to hear me. The fear has made itself real in her head. 

Just like any other fear in your life, we have to face this head on. You are only born with two fears in life: falling and loud noises. All the other ones are learned fears from life experiences. 

You know this means we are going to have to kick the first clown we see in the shins, right? Shin kicking. That’s how the Lewis’ face our fears. 

Are we the only ones with the clown fear?

How do you help your kids through fears and worries? 

(What are we going to do about the clowns?)

3 Comments on “What’s up with the clowns?

  1. Lord, grant sister an extra measure of peace. Cleanse her mind, give her restful sleep and give Mom and Dad words of wisdom and comfort. Blessings, Amen

  2. Every day this week my 9 year old has mentioned clowns. In the context of why are people talking about clowns, why are clowns in the woods and so on. Before she knew of the clown situation about 2 weeks ago we were driving in Longview when a man in a truck came along side us on the multi-lane street. My 9 year old starts yelling that truck has a creepy creepy man looking thru the window. Turns out it was a weird, mean, creepy looking clown decals. We were able to begin a conversation then about how things can look scary with out actually being scary. How can a picture hurt you? I asked. We talked about why she thought he would put it on his truck. We did not come up with anything good except may be it could be our warning to know that this man did not think or maybe act the way we would care to be around. Kind of like how we get clues from people to help us know if we want to surround ourselves with like minded people that can build us up and help us instead of people that give off ok vibes. We talked about avoiding the things and people in life that make us feel uncomfortable or bad, scared or out of control. But it still remains that clown talk continues to come up in the circle my daughter must live. I told her there are people that just want to scare you because they can and there people that want to scare you because they are hiding something and that these are people that we will avoid and we will stand together and not let these clowns inside our minds and take over. There are bad thinking people every where every day and some times its hard to spot them so we can steer clear of them but right now some of those people are making it easy to know… hey, you are someone to steer away from right now because I see you clown and I am not part of your way of thinking. And then we can move in another direction. She has not expressed true fear of clowns at this juncture and I hope it does not creep in beyond conversation. But ya know right now some of the evil in the world is not hiding, they are wearing clown make up and it makes a lot easier to see them and a lot easier to avoid… so let the shin kicking begin, creepy clowns!

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