Kind Police Officer Visits New Home of Age 6 Boy To Assure Him There Are No 'Bad Guys'
Imagine being 6 years old, moving into a new home and having your own bedroom for the first time in your life.
While the transition can be exciting, a little boy named Hayden found sleeping in his own bedroom, alone, to be dreadfully scary.
Hayden’s mother, Amanda Williams, tried to help her son adjust to his new home in Eldridge, Iowa, but her suggestions and logical reasoning tactics were not helping.
“My little man has been having severe anxiety since we moved into the new house. He’s so used to sharing a room with his big sister, who excitedly has her own room now too. I’ve tried everything under the sun to get him to sleep in his own room. Nothing is helping,” Williams wrote on Facebook.
“He believes in superheroes,” Williams added. “He believes in bad guys and all other things that appear real to him.”
But Hayden knew that his community was filled with doctors and police officers — people who help people, so he asked his mom if he could talk with a police officer.
Williams agreed, writing, “So in an effort to continue doing everything I can to help my son, we went to the station today so He could talk with a police officer.”
Officer Bruce Schwartz with the Eldridge Police Department did more than just talk with the worried boy. Schwartz drove over to Hayden’s new house so he could thoroughly inspect the home for signs of bad guys or hidden danger.
Williams snapped a photo of her son showing Schwartz the crawl space inside his new home, which Schwartz confirmed as bad-guy free.
Williams was moved by the officer’s kind response and said it was helpful in reducing Hayden’s fears.
While the boy did struggle to fall asleep that night, he eventually slept in his new bedroom all night and was very proud of himself when he woke up the next morning in his own bed.
Hayden also woke up to a second surprise that morning: Schwartz had come back to the boy’s home to ask if the boy had a good night’s sleep.
The pair posed for several back-to-school photos as Williams, overcome with emotion, listened to her son talk with the officer about what it was like to fall asleep the night before.
Hayden happily told the officer that he fell asleep by thinking of cowboys — a tactic Schwartz said he used to help him fall asleep after a hard day at work. Thinking of something that made him happy — cowboys, in Schwartz’s case — helped ease the transition to restful sleep.
“Truly takes a village to raise kids right these days! I am beyond thankful that Officer Schwartz took time out of his busy day to come over and talk with Hayden,” Williams wrote.
Williams wrote that her son is settling into their home now, helped tremendously by the kind encouragement of a police officer.
“I’m just at a loss of words honestly,” Williams wrote. “Officer Schwartz, if you’re reading this, thank you from the bottom of my mama heart.”
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