Think Before You Forward
Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 6:00AM Every Friday after school, Faith comes running into the house talking a mile a minute.
Well, truthfully, every minute of every day Faith is running and talking a mile a minute but on Fridays she always injects the same question into her ongoing prattle: "Can someone spend the night tonight?"
Bless her heart, she's a hopeful little thing because 9.5 times out of 10 I say, "No."
I say no because I am old and tired and after a long week of sitting in an elementary school hall, the last thing I want is to invite them into my home.
I am just a bundle of fun, aren't I?
But this last Friday, Faith came up with a new and improved question, "Can I go spend the night at Em's house?" To that question I quickly and enthusiastically said "Yes!". "Yes" despite the fact that I had already told her that she was not allowed to do anything all weekend until she found her lost tennis shoes.
I am a rock star parent.
Upon hearing Faith's plans, Rich's immediate response was, "Can Reagan and Hayden go spend the night somewhere too?"
Rich? Also a rock star parent.
Alas, no such luck with the other two, but as it turns out it wouldn't have mattered. Because at 11:20 the phone rang. It was Em's mom who lives across the street, letting us know that Faith was coming home because she was too scared to sleep.
The next morning I got the story out of her. It seems Em, who is a year older and a practical, straight forward child had told Faith about a chain letter e-mail she received.
You know the kind. The "forward this to 10 people or a squirrel will die in the walls of your house" kind of letter that most of us just hit delete and forget about. Except not enough people are hitting delete because the blasted things keep circulating.
Em, of course, had hit delete and moved on and was only telling Faith about it because wanted to share the ridiculousness of it. It seems that this particular letter was written by an eyeless bear and if the recipient did not forward the letter, said bear would come and kill you in your bed.
Google images has kindly given me an idea of what an eyeless bear might look like.
Hmmmmmm . . . not exactly terrifying. But maybe in Faith's head it looked a little more like this?
Possibly. I don't know, but the kid was freaked out. In her head, Em had not forwarded the threatening letter from the bear with no eyes and so Faith wasn't taking any chances on sleeping next to her.
I tried reason. "Faith, how on earth would a bear write an e-mail? And even if a bear could write an e-mail, how would a blind bear do it?"
Reason did not work. The eyeless bear continues to occupy a large part of her brain although Hayden has calmed her down by pointing out that since Faith didn't receive the chain letter, the bear won't be coming after her. Still, I think it's going to be a week or two before Faith goes to sleep without checking for blind bears first.
I write all of this as a warning to those who continue to send on these stupid, stupid e-mails. Please, I beg you, before you hit "send" think of the children.
Also? Their tired parents.
Thank you.
Faith, Things They Say
Reader Comments (19)
I had no idea. This brought me back to my childhood, except it was the "golden aaaarm!"
Oh boy, I can see why she would be scared! Poor baby.
I always get the ones that say if you don't forward to ten friends you will have bad luck. I finally wrote back to my girlfriend sending them and said,
"Please stop sending these to me. I don't have time to think about this, I don't have 10 friends, and I can't afford for my luck to be any worse" She called me immediately laughing. Seriously people, it's true. I can't afford bad luck, and I'm not sure I have 10 besties.
How about the emails with a 'spiritual getcha'...like you will only be blessed if you send this to 2700 people in the next 7 seconds. Ugh.
I think I was a bit like your daughter (right down to the talking a mile a minute)...I'm sure I would have wanted to go home to mama too. I had a slightly over active imagination. I still have to work to keep it in check : )
HAH This made me think of those blasted forwards that have made their way onto my CELLPHONE. I wish phones and email came with a "forward" filter like they do with the spam filter.
mj -That was a freaky story!
Paula - perfect response. :)
Joyce - yeah, to be honest - she comes by all of this quite honestly.
Stephanie - That hasn't happened to me yet. Yuck!
I blacklist people in my email address book for sending me forwards.
When I was a kid we had facebook on paper . . . a friends chain letter designed to net you 36 new friends that you would barely know and pretty much never talk too. I never did fill one out because I already had 15 penpals at the time. (I was a letter junkie)
Of course then by the time I was in college, I was getting "underwear chain letters.' Apparently some wise girl who kept losing her underwear decided that using chain letter to net her 18 new pairs of panties was a great idea. What on earth was she doing that she lost all her underwear anyway?
Hussy.....
Poor Faith! And I, for one, find the picture of the eyeless teddy bear WAY scarier than the one of the real bear. Solution: remove all stuffed animals from her room and place dead salmon in her window to lure the blind bear out of the house. Sure it'll be stinky for a few days but there's nothing better than sleep, eh?? :)
Mindy
www.thesuburbanlife.com
Katie B - Underwear? Seriously? I can't decide whether to laugh or cry at that one. I wonder if she got any.
Mindy - Ha! I don't think I'll suggest the dead salmon to her. You never can tell what that one will take seriously.
Poor girl! I remember getting those stupid things when I was a kid, only then it was an actual letter, and you had to make copies with a copier or by hand and mail them out. We've come a long way in our "something terrible will happen to a family member" threats haven't we!
On another note... I do daycare. I lovingly care for children age 8 and under all week. The last thing I want is to have them back here on the weekends. And a sleepover? My oldest daughter has already gone to 3 of them, but I have a feeling my poor children will probably be one of the last of their friends to host one.
Bless Faith's little heart! Poor dear, I would be scared of a blind bear as well. Luckily I have an attack to which will protect me (all 15lbs of her furry little self). Too bad she didn't make it at Em's house too long though.
You are a rock star mom, I wouldn't want random kids in my house if I worked at the school everyday either.
My mom forwards me the silly, silly chain letters, I finally had to tell her I didn't have time to look between being a mom to 2 small kids, and trying to hold down a job.
Abby- thx for the support and the trip down memory lane. I remember getting them in the mail too - and being too lazy to follow through!
Krista - I think we have the same mom. :)
OMG, I laughed and laughed...poor Faith...bless her little heart!!! I am sorry she is scared but the whole story just made me so tickled that I had to laugh. I hope that Faith's psyche is not forever damaged, then I would feel bad about laughing.
So glad my son was in his twenties before he had email chain letters.
BTW, I ALWAYS hit delete.
Ardee-ann
This made me smile :)
Oh my gosh - this made me and Chris DIE laughing! So funny! Especially the part about how a blind bear would send an email. HAHAHA!!!!!
Poor thing! I've had irrational fears for quite a long time. From a bear in our apartment in Central Virginia to a tiger coming down the hallway in Louisville (don't ask how the tiger got in our house, or where it came from. The zoo?). I had plans, too. How I was going to leap across the hall to save the kids, shove a dresser in front of the door, etc. Then there were the driving-off-a-bridge kind of nightmares, while I was awake. Left me very tense. There were times when I would catch myself literally holding my breath! I won't go into the ones where someone was standing next to my bed with an axe and I had to decide whether or not to open my eyes or not, so that I would either never know what hit me, or see it just before it happened. (No there was no one with an axe. I guess anyway. Not the times I opened my eyes bravely!)
Have I ever mentioned that I'm crazy?
P.S. I hope Faith is able to sleep very soon! I really do feel bad for her and her fears! Hayden is a sweet brother!
ha! Poor Faith... I forget how easily frightened kids are at that age. Of course I'm learning every day as I see Henry cry and scream when I turn on the vacuum cleaner. :)
I find it hilarious that there's a part of the Internet where those emails still exist!
And I sympathize - to this day when I let an appendage hang over the edge of my bed I think of the girl whose dog licked her hand only to wake up and fit her dog viciously murdered in the bathroom.
Get it?
A crazy killer killed her dog and laid on her floor until he could lick her hand.
Basically, I'm saying it's likely she'll never forget.
Email horror stories are terribly resonant.
Also? You're definitely a rock star parent.
I think the blind stuffed bear is much more terrifying than the real thing. In a Chuckie returns sort of way..