my sensitive boy

yesterday, a certain brother-in-law of mine emailed us a little video of "menopausal women drivers". it started with one woman accidentally hitting the car of another woman's car when she opened her door in a parking lot. It escalated into a full blown smash up derby in the parking lot . My boy wanted to watch it too, and was quite concerned about it, why were they hitting each other? At the end of the second time watching it (because Daddy had to see it too), O said, "that made my tummy feel funny inside. and it made my eyes water a little bit". I looked over at him and saw his eyes were wet and asked if it made him cry. He said "no, it just made a few tears come out" He seemed confused by his emotions because he wasn't actually crying, but it did upset him. Sometimes I forget that little ones see things through different eyes than we do, they take things more literally when we, adults, know better. I remember a few incidents from when I was a kid that I took SO seriously. Once, my cousin was visiting us, out on his motorbike. One evening, he was following us somewhere, and as a joke, my dad quickly pulled in behind a huge stack of apple crates, and some seconds later, my cousin whizzed by on his bike, thinking we were still up ahead. We then went home, and the cousin came back quite a while later. He ranted and raved at Dad and I remember him saying "I'm going to kill you!" Of course he was just joking, but I was scared for my Dad's life! I need to be more careful about what I expose my kids to, knowing that they are affected differently than an adult, and try to see things more from their perspective. My sweet, sensitive boy! It made me want to cry just looking at those wet eyes!