This is Mr Pontipine, of In the Night Garden, one of Pebble’s favourite shows on ABC4Kids. You’ll notice Mr Pontipine has a moustache. However, in one episode Mr Pontipine’s moustache comes off and flies around the garden, making all the other characters chase and catch it. Entertaining? Um, no.
Pebble first saw this episode on the DVD that Grandad and Nana ‘Nette have at their house. Every time the episode got the the moustache flying bit Pebble would start to cry. Even from a very young age, I think about 8 months old, she has hated it. No biggie, we just skip that episode if we ever put the DVD on, and there’s no drama. We rarely see the DVD so I really haven’t thought about it much.
Last night, after our blissful day, I was in the other room while Pebble watched In the Night Garden on TV. You guessed it. The episode that happened to be airing on ABC4Kids was that episode. Pebble let out the the loudest, shrillest, most terrified scream I have ever heard her utter. There she was, standing with her feet rooted to the floor, unable to tear her eyes away from Mr Pontipine’s flying moustache on our larger-than-life TV, all the while, screaming, shaking with fear and going purple in the face. It was so awful.
I quickly turned off the TV and scooped her up for a cuddle. It took quite some time for her to calm down, so much time that I was starting to worry. She would half stop, then suddenly ramp up again, as if her brain had just replayed the moment over in her head.
The poor, poor sausage. Of course she recovered, and she’s been fine, no nightmares, happily playing with her Night Garden toys today. But, god, I hope I never hear that scream again, and if I do I hope it’s just as easy to fix.
What strikes fear into your little one’s heart, and how do help them manage their fears?
Stranger and stranger! Poor little lovely...
ReplyDeleteThat show has it's share of spooky moments! For Bebito the scariest thing ever is the opening scene of Finding Nemo when the Mum goes "missing". We can't watch the movie anymore. It's awful seeing them so scared. Bebito has nightmares too and the scream he emits is like no other. Amazing how we can tell the difference in their screams isn't it? We just swoop in with cuddles, reassurance & change the focus of his attention if we can. At night, we put a nightlight on & the Mr has a "special anti-monster" spray he sprays every night to keep the monsters away. It works a treat!
ReplyDeleteI had the exact same problem!
ReplyDeleteMy 15 month old son loves ITNG - I put it on for him to watch as he played around early on Sunday morning whilst I fixed his breakfast. All of a sudden I hear this crying and had a rather upset little boy. I picked him up and he was okay, so I put him back down and carried on. A couple of minutes later the same thing...so I went out to see what was up...everytime Mr Pontipine's moustache flew around, he cried and was scared. I guess to a little kid it looks like a giant scary black fly or something... whenever it stopped he was fine. When it started, he started.... it was rather funny for me, but I thought it best to change the episode for him.
Same issue with my little one.
ReplyDeleteHe loves ITNG, but may have to stop him watching it as I don't want to put him through that again.