Sharks in the Water

One of Jocey's favorite movies now is "Finding Nemo." While watching it today, as usual, when the shark part comes up, Jocey scoots next to me and cries, "Mommy, shark!" She has done this with "The Little Mermaid" as well as the big shark hanging from the ceiling in Joe's Crab Shack. And once again, my remark to her was, "It's okay, it's just a shark, it won't hurt you."

I learned a valuable lesson today though. Why am I telling her that it won't hurt her, when I know that if I teach her that she may one day believe me? There may be one day when she is out in open water and encounters one and gets really hurt. Why am I creating a false sense of security for her with a very dangerous situation? There are alot of things in life that are "sharks" that we casually dismiss, do not take seriously as a threat to our well-being and safety, and that we tell ourselves and our families that "they will not hurt us."

I think there are many things that society will tell us is okay, that won't hurt us. For example, an obvious case, drugs. Yeah, we know about the so called "recreational drugs." But what about other things that kids these days are trying, aka "huffing" and "the pass out game." All these things affect our brains and nervous systems and subsequently "hurt us." What about alcohol? What about sex before marriage? What about certain foods and how much we intake them? What about certain friends and the influence that they can have on her? Why would I ever teach Jocey that these things will not hurt her body and spirit? So, valuable lesson learned for me - I need to be more careful what I tell Jocey will hurt her and what will not.