Hair Scare

After writing the story about Tessa's encounter with a bug in the bathroom Nathan had his own kind of scare that same afternoon. Lucky for me, I was already awake and present to recognize we weren't in any fatal danger. Of course the terror occurred in the bathroom again. Nathan is learning to use the toilet and as he sat there doing his business he let out a frightful scream about the hair that he spied next to his leg on the toilet seat. I calmly encouraged him to pick it up, hand it to me, and I would throw it into the garbage can. Convinced that a single strand of hair could inflict torture beyond imagination, he refused to touch it. However, he continued to scream for me to rescue him from his tormentor. As a mother, how could I allow his suffering, so I picked up the hair and tossed it. After we'd wiped and washed I picked him up to explain the natural process of hair growing, falling out, and re-growing. Nate listened attentively at first until I informed him that his hair also falls out daily. He reached for his hair screaming, "No, not my hair! I don't want to lose it! Put it back on!!!!" He seemed pacified as I tenderly explained that when a hair falls out another hair grows back. Now I have a sense of concern that if he grows up and has true balding issues will he remember that I assured him his hair would grow back? Will he be screaming, "Liar!" Will I remember why?
In sharing this event with Ray, he suggested that I am already to blame. I hate hair that falls down my back annoying me profusely until I can capture it and banish it to the city dump. I, however, do not feel that I have ever demonstrated this crazed behavior in front of my son. So then Ray suggests that it is genetics. I suppose that whatever caused Nathan's initial fright of hair, I can agree that hair when not on ones head is incredibly bothersome regardless of whose it is and where it came from. I can only hope that in time he will be able to take care of loose hair on his own and that he will never bald.