01/10/2024- 'Stopped short - never to go again - when the old man died'-

Oh No! My heart was thumping and I was feeling scared and worried because I noticed the grand father's clock had stopped working at my grandparent's house. I was nervous and anxious but I couldn't explain my thoughts to mummy.

Mummy the grand father's clock is not working is all I kept repeating to my mom. Why are they not repairing it? I kept thinking in my head. Mummy could not understand my fear and was not doing anything about it. She said it's okay we can repair it later. But in my brain I was getting stressed out because I thought of the song' My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf so it stood 90 years on the floor. ...... but it stopped short - never to go again- when the old man died. ' This thought was driving me crazy because I thought that if the clock stops grandpa's heart will stop and he will die. I didn't know what to do so I kept telling mummy.

Finally after telling her many times she saw my worry and she questioned me about my inner thoughts and feelings, I told her I was very anxious but I didn't know how to tell her about the song. Suddenly she guessed the connection and she asked me if the song about the grand father's clock was bothering me. I felt so relieved and happy that she had understood and could save my grandpa,

But mom was not anxious she was calm and explained to me that the song is not real it's just fiction. There was no need to worry it's just a song . I finally understood and my fear disappeared.

I learnt that most songs, stories and movies are not real they are just fictional stories. Do any of you think that some songs or stories or movies are real? For me many stories I read or movies I watch feel like they are real stories and I feel confused and I can't tell the difference.

Mum speaks

I was having a particularly busy week at work, my husband and I were unwell, so I just brushed off Reh's repeated remarks about the clock at my parent's house as one of his annoying quirks of saying the same insignificant thing ad nauseum.

A few days later, early in the morning I saw Reh hesitantly peer into my room and as soon as our eyes met, he mumbled the same phrase about the clock not working and quickly retreated. I noticed the anxious body language and the fear on his face, very unlike his happy smiley self especially first thing in the morning. That is when I realised something was bothering him and he was not able to put it into words.

On questioning him gently with sentence starters so that he wont shut down he was able to tell me that the grand father's clock not working was worrying him and he was nervous that it had stopped. I was quite confused, it made no sense and he was not able to give any reason. Suddenly, the song connection came to my mind, I remembered he had listened to the song that week. As soon as I asked him if the grand father's clock song was bothering him he jumped at it and sang out the line 'stopped- short never to go again - when the old man died.,,,,,,,,,,,,,'

Then it all tumbled out and all the incessant repetitions made sense to me. For all those days he went through so much inner turmoil because he took the words of the song literally as a given, making a fixed assumption. Once I explained it to him, his relief was palpable.

Another reminder to all of us, of how keenly observant and clued in we need to be constantly to pick up on these subtle nuances that can cause so much unwanted stress to our children.