My Sensitive Little Man

It's no secret Brady is super, duper, uber sensitive. He's been known to cry when his uncle had a stomachache or when we had to flush a stinkbug down the toilet. But this week, he took it to a new level.

I was watching news coverage of the wild fires in Colorado and some guy hellbent on breaking my heart was interviewing 4 little boys whose parents had died a few years ago and then, just this month, watched the fires gobble up their home. During the interview, the youngest was explaining how he wanted to save a blanket he and his dad always covered up with while sitting together on the couch. So, I lost it. Tears were flowing, snot was running, and I was trying to be as discreet as possible, but he saw. It was too late.

Brady: Why are you cy-ing?

Me, not thinking clearly due to the aforementioned heart break: Those little boys lost their house in those big fires.

Cue the blaze on TV.

Brady: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

This was 3 days ago, and his thoughts have evolved into believing that thunder causes fires. So the next storm should be great fun. He's still bringing up the news report, asking, "Why did that house burn down? Why are there fires in Colorado? Why don't those boys have a house?" And when he spent the night at my parents' on Saturday, he was looking at my dad's bookshelf and chose a book with a burning barn on the cover. He insisted on taking said book to breakfast with them the next morning. I think we may have a problem.

While I certainly appreciate a degree of empathy, I'm afraid my child will become immobilized by these thoughts. I also fear that I'm an IDIOT. Why, oh why, would I tell Brady about those damn fires? Why couldn't I have just thought of something else? "Mommy's crying because she's tired. Because she's sad about the huge zit on her forehead. Because she's out of wine." Thank GOD I didn't explain the part about the boys losing their parents.

I've always subscribed to the idea that honesty is the best policy, but I think I have found a grey area. In the future, I fully intend to lie directly to this kid's face if it means saving him a single tear. There's plenty of time for him to realize the world is full of craziness; he doesn't need to worry about it now. Plus, his sister is already trying to take him down and I feel bad because in a couple of months she's really going to let him have it. I think I should put him in a bubble now.