Knowledge is Overrated

Every day we follow the same routine. Maggie and I pick Alli up from school. Alli gets in car, kisses Maggie and I a 'hello' kiss, Alli gets buckled up, and I then proceed to ask her about her day. That varies from day to day.
Some days it's "The pretty girl Ruby (who I actually find quite homely... seriously... not a cute kid) doesn't want to be my friend. " (Ruby usually doesn't want to do what Alli wants to do... and thus she "doesn't want to be her friend"), other days it is something like this "Today I sat by Emil at lunch. He is really nice, but he smells kind of funny. I was nice to him anyways. " (Emil is from India and eats tons of curry. Nuf' said.), this is how it went today-- "Mom, Guess what?? Today we had a fire drill! It was really cool. We got to line up and walk outside until the alarm stopped ringing.". "Very cool," I said, " I'm so glad you learned about fire safety today. Did they talk about what happens if you have a fire at home too?"
It was then that I saw my little girls eyes fill with horror. "We could have a fire at home!???!!!"
"Yes Alli, we can have a fire at home. Maybe we should have our FHE (Family Home Evening)on fire safety and make a fire drill of our own." Alli started hyperventilating in the back seat. " I don't want a fire in our house, mom! That would be really scary!" "Yes Alli, It would be scary, but if you know what to do before a fire happens, then you'll be less scared." ..... boy was I wrong.
As soon as we got home, Alli knew that she did NOT want to wait until next Monday night's FHE. I went over the fire drill the briefest way that I could. I should have skipped 'how to get out' part. Since the girls share a room on the 2nd floor of our townhouse, I told Alli that she needed to (only as a last resort) open the window, push out the screen, throw down some pillows and blankets that they could land on, and jump out the window. Man, was that the wrong thing to say to that child. "I don't WANT to jump out the window! It will hurt!!" "Alli, is it better to hurt your arm or leg -or- die in a fire?" In the end, Alli agreed it was okay to have a few broken bones instead of dying.
I thought that the subject had passed, as life went on as normal.
We did our nightly routine, and as I was putting Alli into bed she started worrying and crying and hyperventilating again about being in a fire. She is terrified to sleep now, because she just knows that she'll have to jump out that window sooner or later. I could not sooth her with the fact that neither Chip or I in our whole lives have ever been in a fire or had to make a death defying escape through a window. I tried to reason that if you say your prayers and ask Heavenly Father to protect us and keep us safe, he will. He will also send the Holy Ghost to comfort her if she is feeling scared. None of this is helping her sleep. (Although she is on her bed right now, kneeling, and praying very fervently to keep us safe.)

I just know that bedtimes just got a lot worse.

Seriously, sometimes knowledge is overrated.