Stop Being Afraid of the Dark

This is a simple trick to help a child (or anyone) who is afraid of darkness at bedtime.  Utilizing a very old pirate technique, you can prepare yourself for darkness and/or a sudden ninja attack under a starless sky.

When I was a kid, I was afraid of the dark.  Anything could be happening in darkness.  A mindless zombie could be stumbling toward me.  A demon could be clawing up from the reaches of Heck and discover the  passageway between the netherworld and my bedroom closet. 

This technique is in keeping with my own geeky "lets learn something" (or "teach a child to fish rather than the location of the local fish market") parenting philosophy.  Certainly, there are complex psychological issues at play here but a simple fear of darkness may be aided by this technique. Most important is the fact that you are acknowledging your child's fear and helping him or her understand and use his own body processes to help him adapt to the situation. It's impossible to promise you will always light up the dark but it is possible to help a child understand how his eyes adjust to it.

Step 1 You Need

One kid
One eye patch - This can be made a variety of ways like this.  It can also be purchased in a toy aisle, costume shop, or pharmacy.

Comments

[Johenix]

U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command pilots used to fly with a patch over one eye so that if they were facing an A or H bomb explosion the flash would blind only one eye and they could switch the patch and complete the mission.

Vitamin A defiency night blindness is a sign of a near fatal defiency.

The WWII story of night fighter pilots eating carrots for night vision was a cover story for the then super secret RADAR.

[starshipminivan]

Night blindness can be an early indicator of Vitamin A deficiency. For those without access to Vitamin A, the deficiency can eventually lead to total blindness. This is far too common in the developing world but is not often seen in developed countries.

The fact that this deficiency can result in an inability to fight infection continues to be a problem in developing nations. An inability to fight infection would, of course, leave a person open fatal results of illnesses from which people normally recover.

[Dr. Pepper]

That's cool!

[Xamith]

Neat idea, and I learned something about pirates! Haha, thanks for sharing.