Joanne Cantor's son was 5 years old when he passed an elaborate Halloween exhibit with a scarecrow oozing "bloody" macaroni-and-ketchup intestines.
Her son's eyes got very big.
"Aren't they going to help that man?" he said.
Halloween is a tricky time for the 5 and under set. On one hand, they get orange M&M's, school parades and face paint. On the other, they have to contend with slithering snakes, 8-foot ghost skeletons and bloody animatronic ghouls.
Cantor, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of "Mommy, I'm Scared: How TV and Movies Frighten Children and What We Can Do to Protect Them," has advice for parents trying to navigate the spookiest holiday.
Understand that being scared is normal. Even if your kid doesn't know much about slithering snakes or gaping wounds, he's wired to find this stuff disturbing. In early human history, this was a good thing. Parents didn't have to explain to kids to avoid the man with the hatchet in his head.
Don't pooh-pooh your child's fears. Until about age 6, kids don't fully understand the difference between real and "pretend." They believe what they see with their eyes.
Try show and tell. Cantor's solution was to cook her own macaroni and cover it with ketchup - demonstrating to her son that what he saw was just very bad pasta.
Got a kid who's scared of masks? Find one that's not scary and demonstrate how it works, putting it on your face and taking it off.
Don't take a small child to a place with a lot of scary costumes. You're borrowing trouble.
Distraction is your friend. Sometimes soothing a worried child is as simple as playing cards or baking cookies.
nschoenberg@tribune.com
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