The first time Lily saw roller hockey skates - she was terrified. It didn't even register as the source of her fear, at the time, so the very act of comforting her panic (while wearing skates), became a callous encroachment of the very thing she feared. Once I understood the source of the fear, I backed off and attempted to explain the harmless nature of skates.
The incident was absurd, yet also somewhat understandable. To the seasoned eye, skates are skates. What she was seeing were scuffed leather, scratched metal and dirty plastic contraptions which made a person taller and move unnaturally (roll). It could be scary, if you'd never seen them before.
The fear lasted beyond that day. She plays soccer at a place with two roller hockey rinks, and would make me carry her through any section that someone on skates might roll past. Around the house, she wouldn't come within 10 feet of hockey skates and wasn't at all tempted to roll the wheels.
It took watching Dad play a hockey game and a visit to a Hockey store (where skates lined the wall) to turn the tide. She now she expresses a desire to play some day. She will even spin the wheels on the skates. She'll also point out the skates if they are in the room, which expresses interest, admiration and likely the fear she has managed to (mostly) conquer.
On the second hockey game she came to see me play in - she let me pick her up while I was wearing skates. That's progress.
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