Please, help me kill Winnie.

Cool. I'm seeing her getting hit over the head with her evil witch's broom! So glad that Mo participates -- I think that is important.

Only another week until the madness is over.

i know im dragging this up... and hopefully by me dragging it up, it doesnt bring Winnie back with it (if she is gone) but if she is not gone, maybe you could take Mo on a hunt... a hunt for winnie. Where you two, together capture and either slay, or pack her up in a box and literally mail her away to some where like the south pole... somewhere that Mo equates with being really fair away...

seed, I especially like the mailing winnie away idea.

Boomer - how's this going now that halloween is behind you?

the only reason why i used that idea is because that is what helped me get over my "winnie". my mother tells the story of me being scared of my teddy rupskin (spelling?) doll because he moved and talked and eyes and all that stuff... she got rid of the doll but i was still scared... so she and I went hunting... we had butterfly nets and what not and i "caught" him and we threw him in a box and as I remember it we sent him to africa

Timbuktu is a good place to send evil thingies.

My only problem with mailing Winnie away is that Mo might end up visiting with the granparents who harbor Winnie and he would see that she is still in town. As these grandparents have resurfaced lately, and as the holidays are approaching, I have a feeling that Mo will be exposed to the actual Winnie again.

Around Halloween the Winnie story became quite elaborate with us chasing her off and it became a fun story for him to tell. I really thought she had lost her power.

Then, one morning Mo crawled into my bed and started freaking about the "Red Winnie" (huh?) so now we're back to "Winnie won't come around here anymore, she's afraid of you and Biscuit, blah blah blah".

I really hate Winnie.

It just blows my mind that the grandparents don't get rid of Winnie, or at least put her in the attic when Mo visits.


The Red Winnie might be some sort of Winnie manifesation, perhaps a worse, now unbeatable (to Mo) Winnie since you've succeeded in chasing away the other Winnie.

The reason I say this is because when I was little I had terrible nightmares. I'd have all sorts of nightmares but the kind that I am reminded of here is the one with colors.

They started around 4 when my mom took up on a bowling league. I knew she was leaving and I would freak. I know that sounds funny but the specific details were a tea set and tires. The tea set was pink and was "good". The tires were black and were "bad". The tires always ran over the tea set. To me, bad got good. I have no idea why this was so frightenening or why I chose pink and black or tea sets and tires but perhaps red is a scary color to Mo. Just a thought.

Maybe I read this already but why is he scared of Winnie? Has he said? Does he think she will hurt him? Cast a spell? Hurt you? Just curious.

Mo hasn't seen these grandparents in almost one year. (I've addressed their resurfacing on another thread but I'm having a hard time even revisiting the thread - too much angst for me to deal with right now.)

I really don't know why Winnie was/is so scary to him. I've always assumed it is her "humanoid" appearance and size but the fact that she's not "real". He's not the same with manniquins though - he does take an interest in them and always points out the ones that don't have heads.

Your dream in so interesting, kristie. Truly odd symbols. Interesting too that you remember it so well.

Mo doesn't seem to have any hangups about the color red but I have no idea how I would go about testing that.

The first thing I think of is a riff by some author (Jean Shepherd?) about how terrifying the name "Red Skelton" was to him when he was a kid. He thought of a red bloody skeleton, absolutely terrifying.

Red = bloody = scary is pretty common, I think.

Poor Mo.

I can see where blood and red would be associated even with little kids. "Red Skelton" is a scary name!

I did this for my best friends child who was 4 and scared of dolls....

I bought a Rave hairspray bottle. cleaned it out and put in water,lemon juice ( 2/3 lemon juice) so it retained its taste.

Painted the bottle with non toxic child friendly paint. Painted it RED with black dots. ( powerful colors in a kids eyes )
Gave it to Sully.. told her that if she EVER saw a doll or even THOUGHT she saw a doll to spray herself-the doll- and her pillow ( pillow being if it was a dream )
And the taste of the spell water was enough to scare away even adults..
After saying that I would taste the water myself.. and my natural reaction convinced her. I am POSITIVE she would taste the water too.. Given it wa full of lemon juice.. she knew I wasnt lying. hahaaha!
I refilled that thing ONE time. that was it. no more dolls.

Giving her something physical to use WITHOUT having to call on an adult helped her. It empowered her . MAYBE something like that will help you?

I've thought about trying some Winnie-spray but I do worry that such an item just opens the door to the possibility that Winnie can get in the house.

truly fascinating. I had a white skeleton and a brown skeleton in my nightmares as a child. White one was ALWAYS under my bed, poking her fingers through the mattress. She was scary, but not unbearable. Now when the brown one appeared (only seldom), that was another story. Then I was ready to jump behind the white one to hide from her! What my mom did, which worked eventually, was that she did not deny their existence (I wouldn't buy it anyway), but looked under my bed and said there's someone else, too. A little devil creature who is mightily bored and wants the skeletons to stop poking and go play with him. And off they want, each time I would run to my mom. Later I was able to imagine the devil creature myself, and somehow the skeletons just faded away completely. Hm, dunno, but maybe you can find Winnie some company to keep her busy in her (Winnie's) own world.

That has some possiblities, dagmarka -- as long as Winnie and her friend stay out of the house.

I think it is very interesting how color seems to play a big part in these fears. When Mo started talking about "Red Winnie" I thought it was just some abberation. Now I'm thinking maybe not.

Hmm.
what is your religion.. if I mayask Boom?
Is it something that would help? Maybe?

Sure you can ask -- but I don't have a simple description for my beliefs and they don't fall into any recognized category.

Plus, if I were to appeal to God (or have Mo appeal to God) for protection, Mo faces many more serious, very real, threats than Winnie.

Ahhh... very true.

The reason I asked... well.. I think you get it ;-)
If there is an underlying religious belief that can be drawn upon as a power THAT may help too.

In my religion , i would use spells. Maybe/maybe not helping.. but..
though it seems that you have used a ' type' of spell so to speak already.
( throwing bits of air out the window naming them winney)
>sigh< I wish I had an answer for you that was an end all solution.
If I can think of anything else I will gladly post it here for ya,
You are a gooooood parent!
Most parents would have just passed this off as a stage and submitted thier child to a 'childhood private torture'.
Hopefully there will be an end for you and your daughter. :-)

yes, boomer, I think Red Winnie is in a sense a new creature. If Winnie stopped being threatening enough, there is Red Winnie to step in. Which probably only means that the underlying problem is still very much there. I honestly don't think you can do much more than you are already doing, and you are being wonderful. Time will kill Winnie, and you can only continue doing what you already are doing and have patience. And dominion.

.............Has anything really frieghtning happened for your daughter in her grandparents home that she might associate Winney with??

i dont remember if you tried this or not but how about asking the grandparents for winnie and then actually letting Mo beat it up, throw it away, set it on fire... mail it or what ever...