Parenting rule #1: Always believe your child, even when their stories sound impossible. I learned this the hard way after weeks of dismissing my son Liam’s nighttime terrors.
“It talks to me,” he’d whisper, staring wide-eyed at his bedroom mirror. “The shadow man whispers bad things.” We humored him with flashlight checks and monster spray, chuckling about overactive imaginations. Until the night our laughter died in our throats.
When Liam came running to us, too terrified to even cry properly, my husband finally took action. What we found behind that mirror still gives me chills – a six-foot black snake curled in the wall cavity, its tongue flicking rhythmically against the drywall. Exactly the “hissing” Liam had described for weeks.
The wildlife removal team found an entire nest in our basement. Now our walls are sealed, the mirror is gone, and Liam proudly tells everyone how he “saved the house from the wall snake.” Most importantly, I learned that children’s fears often come from real places adults have forgotten to look.
