"Fireworks are scary Mom!"

Dear Falcotto,

My name is Rossella and I want to tell what happened a couple of days ago while I was at a mountain resort with my little Andrea.

My lively playful little son has just turned 2, and he is always on the go! This winter we took him on a mountain holiday for the first time and right away he wanted to learn how to ski. But what I want to tell you is not about his sports skills, but about what happened on New Year’s Eve.

The hotel where we stayed had organized an amazing party for its guests on New Year’s Eve, with special entertainment for children. Andrea was the liveliest child of the party, he made friends with lots of other kids, and all I did was sit at my table to keep an eye on him.

Having had a good nap in the afternoon, my son was still wide awake at midnight. Just before the countdown, we all went on to the hotel terrace to enjoy the fireworks display.

Andrea was in the front row, and asked to sit on his Dad’s shoulders because he was eager to see what was happening. But when the first fireworks started to go off, the inevitable happened. Andrea started to cry at the top of his lungs, he was terrified. First, he tried to hide behind me, then he put his hands over his ears to shut out the noise. In the end I picked him up and pushed my way through the guests to taken him into the hotel, but even inside matters didn’t change.

Every time a rocket went off, even if the noise was less, he would jump, terrified. “Mom, has a war started outside? he asked me. I didn’t know how to comfort him, so I took him back to our room and turned on the television to a cartoon station. In the meantime, I tried to reassure him, explaining that what was happening outside was beautiful, a colourful display in the sky and that although there was lots of noise, it wasn’t dangerous.

In the end, after a good half hour of crying, Andrea finally calmed down and I managed to put him to bed. Before falling asleep, he looked at me and said, “Mummy, next time let’s stay at home where there are no coloured noises in the sky”.

Let’s hope next year he is a little braver ...