No Hurry

My darling Iris has an unusual fear. She's had it for quite sometime now. She has a fear of "hurry". Yes, my child is horribly afraid of a word.

She will run and romp and speed through fields, but do NOT say, "hurry" to her.

I'm not using this post as a metaphor to say she's lazy. Quite the contrary...Clyde is my lazy one. I'm being quite literal. Here's the drill....an example of what USED to occur in our home before we omitted "hurry" from our vocabulary :

I'm late. Lets say I'm late for church. It happens. I scramble to find my keys, my lesson, my shoes, etc. I shout to my three darlings, "Hurry and put your shoes on or we're going to be late for church!"

You've noticed I used the word? Now watch scene two.

"NOOOO! MOM! MOM! NOOOOO! STOP!!!!"

She shouts the above over and over while clinging to my ankle and making her body go limp on the floor. Tears are pouring out of her eyes.

What on EARTH?

It took a few times of this happening, for us to realize...okay it took more than a few for us to realize. Lots of trial and error. I mean, it was obvious that she was scared, but of what???

We're very careful and we spell it now. Lucy and Clyde are both very aware that we don't use "THAT WORD". They don't like the screaming and weeping either.

This fear has begun to branch out. Now we don't even have to say it. If we are actually in the process of hurrying, she watches with a wary look. She freezes then says in a high and anxious voice, " Are you hurrying?"

This posed a new delimna...are we seriously going to let this perfectly mentally stable (?) child prevent us from doing things quickly when we're running behind?

So far we can answer her question with, "No, Sweetie, we're going slowly. Please put your shoes on very slowly. I don't know what you're talking about. Mommy and Daddy are not hurrying at all.We want to go as slowly as we can to church, okay?"

She calms down some, but wrings her little hands and continues to warily watch us scrambling around while throwing her shoes in the car.

Is this a lie?

Because if it is....we've taught it to Lucy and Clyde and we don't know how to stop.