I am scared?
Scared of what?
People?
What people?
Animals?
What animals?
Tigers.
That is just pretend. (the tigers and all the animals in the pretend cave in her room)
Leave the door open. (we negotiate for a few minutes, I leave it cracked)
A few minutes later...
Scared of people.
What people?
Isaiah.
Cousin Isaiah from the video? (these are old videos of Isaiah doing a masterful impression of the Hulk, among other superheros)
Yeah.
Oh, he loves you so much, you don't need to be scared. He is just playing on the video.
I compromise on the door again, open it even wider.
We do many rounds and 20 minutes have gone by. Finally I say I will discipline her if she whines and throws a fit, she needs to go to sleep.
I will close the door if you start crying and throw a fit. Do you want me to close the door and let you cry?
Expecting a big fit, she nonchalantly says: Yeah. Door closes.
And off she went to sleep.
