When my son was three years old he woke in the night screaming. He was so frightened that he could hardly speak. He’d seen the Easter bunny! I had been reading him a story about a little fluffy bunny in the run up to Easter and I couldn’t understand why he was so terrified. Years later he was able to explain.

Co-incidentally, in the run up to Easter that year, there was a huge promotion for the film ‘Roger Rabbit’. Roger was a manic, machine gun toting wild eyed rabbit that appeared in the commercials ‘blowing away’ his rivals with machine gun fire.

Every time I mentioned anything about the Easter bunny coming in the night to deliver a surprise present, my son imagined Roger The Rabbit rather than the fluffy bunny. Unfortunately I’d mentioned it quite a few times in the week before Easter, which only amplified his terror.

I imagined he was becoming increasingly excited by the prospect of a little friendly creature visiting and delivering chocolate but he was imagining a scene of mass murder!

I hadn’t come across Clean Questioning in those days, or I might have focused a little more attention on his view of the world rather than just feeding him (or so I thought) mine. Once I’d told him the Easter bunny doesn’t exist, he calmed – and he still managed to enjoy the chocolate egg hunts, despite the trauma!

I suppose the learning in this is to remember, when you think you are telling them one thing, they may be hearing another – and it can be worth checking out what they are actually hearing. Clean Language can help you do that.