Scary Monster

You would like to think that your kids aren't scaredy-cats, that you've raised them to be tough.  You feel like somehow it reflects your parenting when they are scared of silly things.  For instance, Aiden.  He is a dare devil and will jump off pretty much anything, dive into anything with no fear.  But then a little tiny gnat flies in his direction and he completely freaks out.  I mean thunder and lightning are one thing, but a gnat?  Really?  I have come to grips with it I guess that yes, deep down my son is a marshmallow.

Ella's fear has always been other people.  Mostly her relatives.  More imparticular the men in her life.  So basically I can boil it down to her uncles and grandfathers.  Sorry guys.  You know who you are.  You are also well aware of the fact that you have made her cry on more than one occasion just by saying "Hi."  Now it's safe to say that after 3 years of therapy she's doing much better!  She's not nearly as freaked out just based on appearance alone.  We're still working on being approached though.  Her philosophy is 'if I ignore them, maybe they will go away.'

Yesterday I got a little insight to this whole fear of hers.  We were coloring and she drew this picture:

"What is it?" I asked. "A scary monster." Apparently her idea of a scary monster is a man with little to no hair and a goatee. Interesting. Now I'm not saying that anyone's a monster, but you know those male relatives I was talking about before? Well, here are their pictures:

In her defense, I think I'm a little scared. 

Well, I guess there's only one thing I can say about this.  Thanks guys for traumatizing my daughter for life.  If you want to be on good terms with Ella, let's rethink this whole facial hair thing.  It's scary.