Help, help! There's a fire!

[Rea T]

This is what J was yelling earlier this evening when he and K were downstairs and I was upstairs cleaning up from supper. Wanna know how fast I made it down the steps? Wanna know how long it took to get my heart started again when I realized he was just pretending?

How would you handle that issue with a 5 year old? I just calmly explained that it scared me very, very badly when he yelled that because I was afraid that he and K would be hurt. I told him that if he wanted to play that there was a fire he could (last week was fire safety week at school, I think that is what sparked this...no pun intended), but please don't yell that out if there isn't really a fire. He can say it quietly, or he can yell things like "Help, help, there's a swamp monster" but please don't yell fire if there isn't one.

[Heather Micaela]

:shrug
Playing out dangerous themes is age appropraite and healthy. Maybe you can aske him to give you a heads up the next time it is too realisic? :shrug3

I know when playing in the pool as a kid and pretending a shark was after us the grown-ups made us say "PLEH" (help backwards) instead so they knew we were not in any real danger.

[Rea T]

Hmmm. Maybe I'll teach him to say help in Spanish.

Good to know that it is age appropriate though.