One night after I had shut the light off and cuddled up with Jonathan he told me the story of the "scary hearts." I wasn't sure what he was talking about.
He told me his sitter had had a scary heart that day.
"I stepped on her carpet," he got up to show me, placing his toe slightly in front of him. "Like that. And she yell at me."
Our sitter has a very nice house, very clean floors, and judiciously cleans her floors and carpets. But she's also a great sitter, a nice person and I can't see her flipping out on a child for him stepping on her carpet.
I asked him if he had been wearing his shoes when he stepped on her carpet and he admitted he had. I asked if she had really yelled or if she had scolded him, suggesting he take his muddy shoes off first.
He didn't answer.
"She have scary heart," is all he would say.
We were quiet for a moment as I pondered what he meant by "scary heart."
"Daddy have scary heart too," he told me matter of fact.
"
Was Daddy angry today?" I asked.
"Yeah," he said.
"But he loves you," I told him. "Maybe he was just frustrated with something you were doing."
"
He have scary heart," he said again. "Like that lady."
"What lady?" I asked.
"That lady on the Mr. Men Show (a cartoon he watches on Boomerang). Ms. Scary."
Oh. So he was getting it from a show.
But still, it was interesting he was connecting her grumpy behavior with that of adults in his life.
"Do I ever have a scary heart?" I asked.
"Uh-huh," he said.
I dropped the discussion, thinking maybe he was simply having a down moment, sad about being scolded for things he had done wrong.
But the statements about "scary hearts" continued through the next week and he started saying he didn't want to go back to his sitters because of her scary heart.
Our sitter is great, so I feel sure that Jonathan is simply sad when he gets in trouble for doing something wrong. I've never seen this woman angry or nasty, so I have a hard time believing she is really "scary."
At the same time, I don't want to dismiss my son's concerns.
When he was leaving for the sitters one day last week he brought up the scary heart in his sitter again.
I suggested a way to chase away her scary heart was to hug her and to tell her 'I love you.'
His little face lit up and he said, "Yeah. OK."
Combating the scary with love seemed like a good idea to him.
I'm thinking it might have worked because he hasn't mentioned "scary hearts" lately.
I hope he won't worry any longer about those "scary hearts" either.
And I hope he won't have to tell me that I have a "scary heart."
I'm trying to merge my photography blog with my regular blog a bit and this week I wanted to participate in I Heart Faces' challenge of 
