Live like Superman...

About half an hour after bedtime, Superman came down last night clearly upset.

Crawling onto my lap, he sniffled..."I don't want to die." He then snuggles into me as far as he can go.
"Oh babe, why are you thinking about that?" I say holding him closer.
He then starts sobbing and just keeps saying, "I don't want to die," over and over.

I hold him for a while longer, then we start talking about all the great things he is going to do and he tells me when he is older he is going to be a doctor. (Lady London you need to talk to him about that...)

However, he is not to be dismissed, and repeats his mantra again.

I feel stuck for what to say. Really I do. I hope as any mother or father does, that their child will live long after they have gone and that they reach the grand old age of 150. However I do not want to lie, I do not want to say 'you won't die'; because even at his age of 6 and a bit, he knows that everything dies eventually.

So I look at him, tears streaming down his cheeks and just say, "Then don't die. Live."
I know he doesn't really understand what I am saying, but I just say, "Live. Do the things that you want to do, believe in the things that you want to believe in; don't regret anything. Just live and enjoy your life."

We then spend some time talking about all the things he does want to do; Like going to see Father Christmas at the North Pole, or riding a reindeer or buying Lego mini figures and dancing in the rain...that is living man!!

He is eventually calmed and potters back off to bed with his small cuddly monkey for company.

Much later when he is asleep I go in to watch him softly snoring. There is sometimes no greater pleasure than watching your children sleep; there is a gentle appreciation for who they are and their face softens in dreamland as they pass through another night.

It reminds me of what I have created and what my responsibilities are. We make little babies and don't have a handbook for raising kids, but hopefully we do a fairly good job by the skin of our teeth.
As I watch him, I also think that perhaps my advice was not so off balance after all. We mutter all the time about the fact that we have just 'one life' as we have no idea what is around the corner...many of my friends would add testimony to that.

So no regrets, just live...feel empowered by your decisions, believe in yourself and live.

Live like my Superman will, and don't die...