They're coming!!!

As adults we sometimes forget that kids don't know everything. They spend so much time trying to convince us that they do know everything that occasionally I think they do know it all. The other day as I was driving around with Colby and Skyler we had a moment that I will cherish forever...

My children have this thing about graveyards. There is a big one that is on the way to my folks house. Every time we pass it most of the kids hold their breath. They comment on how if you don't you will have bad luck on your birthday. All of this talk about graveyards extends all the way down to Colby. Naturally I assume that the little kids even know what a graveyard is. I now know they don't.

On this particular day I was heading down to the Tech Center to pick up McKenna. On the way there we pass a small graveyard. As we approached it I had to stop at a red light. I glanced over and noticed a funeral party there. I casually made a comment about the people that were there for a funeral. Colby looks over towards the graveyard and promptly yells out "Zombies!!!"
This is how the conversation went from there...
"What Colby?"
"Look mom, there's Zombies in the graveyard!"
I had no idea what he was talking about, but could more or less surmise that he thought any walking being in a graveyard had to be a Zombie.
Me, thinking this was a good mommy teaching moment took the opportunity to gently explain funerals and the people that go to them.
"Honey, those aren't Zombies, those are people that are at a funeral. One of their family or friends has died and that's where they are burying them. They are there to say goodbye."
"A dead person is buried there????"
"Well, sweetie, that's what a graveyard is....it's where we bury our dead people."
"There's lots of dead people there???"
This only amplified his fear at this point. You should have seen the look on his face and the urgency in his voice. He was genuinely terrified at this point.
"OH MY GOSH....they're Zombies and they are coming this way!"
I glanced over again and sure enough the funeral was over and the people were starting to wander back to their cars. Their cars just happened to be in the direction that we were.
"Mooooom, they are coming...the Zombies!"
At this point I could no longer stifle my laughs. He was leaning all the way forward in his seat belt, as close to me as he could get and whispering softly but urgently. As though he would be heard by the Zombies, that were surely on their way to get us.
"Hurry mom, they aaaaaaaare coming...."

I had no idea that he didn't know what a graveyard truly was. His idea of a graveyard wasn't something I had taught him with softness and kindness. It was the accumulation of ideas brought about by his siblings and their torture methods, way too many episodes of Goosebumps and a few too many times watching Thriller. I don't mean to laugh at my child's fears, but it was just so dang funny....poor kid. He might always have a fear of graveyards now...