Catching the Bad Dreams

I expect to be roused from a deep sleep a least once a week. Sometimes I even wake up before the Young One wanders into my bedroom. I hear the click of the door latch, and see the short shadowy figure approach.

“Another bad dream?” I ask in a whisper.

“Uh-huh,” she whispers back.

I take her hand and together we climb the stairs to her room. We’ve been doing this for almost a year.

Sometimes I think she just wants another momma-hug.

Sometimes I think she just wants a reason to get out of her warm bed and wander around the quiet house.

But other times I think she really is afraid. I learned quite a while ago that she has a vivid imagination and is sometimes afraid of the dark, so I’m not surprised when I hear about green monsters and zombies.

The Older One’s dream catcher hung over his bed for years, keeping the bad dreams away.

I am surprised, however, that it has taken me this long to think of the Dream Catcher. Years ago, while on a business trip in Phoenix, AZ, I walked into the hotel gift shop in search of a guilt gift–the trinket working moms buy to give to their kids on the back-end of a week away from home to say, “Sorry I had to be away. Here’s an over-sized pencil with the name of a far away town on it to make up for my absence.”

This time, instead of some logo’d key chain, I opted for a handmade Native American dream catcher, which according to legend, will catch bad dreams in the center of its woven circle and trap them there until they evaporate in the morning sun. It sounded cool, and looked even cooler–just the thing to raise the bar on my guilt gift giving.

I took it home and presented to my son. He eagerly hung it over his bed where it stayed for more than a decade. I rarely heard about bad dreams during that time, so maybe there is some truth to that legend wrapped up in twine and feathers.

Now, I think the time has come to revive the dream catcher for the Young One. Only, I’m a little skeptical of the power of a hand-me-down maybe-magic-ornament. (Plus, her brother’s red and black don’t go with her orange and pink!) So, I’ve scoured the World Wide Web for the coolest, girliest dream catcher I can find.

It’s being hand-crafted as I type, and I’m hoping it will help her not be afraid of bad dreams any more…and that I’ll get a full night’s sleep!

How do you keep away bad dreams?

**This post was brought to you by Five Minute Friday and the word “afraid.”

Who’s Afraid of the Dark?

When I heard the first whisper, my eyelids fluttered open to reveal nothing but darkness. They quickly fell closed only to pop open seconds later when I heard the second more highly pitched whisper. The words were garbled, but the desperation was distinct. Again, seeing nothing but darkness I dared a glance at my bedside clock–3:52 a.m.

I was wide wake now, and at the third eery whisper from the shadows, my thoughts went immediately to the trailer for the movie The Devil Inside that played during every commercial break for Teen Mom 2 last night. A chill raced straight up my spine.

I was just about to kick The Hubs awake for replaying those exorcism commercials over and over instead of letting me watch the mindless pleasure of teenage pregnancy, when I heard it clearly.  The tiny, ghostly whisper, “Mommy?”

It took me only seconds to discard the theory that my youngest child was possessed by a demon and remember the events that preceded last night’s viewing of Teen Mom. The Young One, it appears, is afraid of the dark. Only after repeated promises to leave the hall light on was I allowed to leave her room following the gruelingly long bedtime ritual. As I departed, I uttered the fateful words, “If you get scared in the night, you come find me.” Apparently, she had. I just couldn’t see her.

The Young One pretending her doggy is a dragon.

After groping in the darkness for several more seconds, I finally made contact with the fleece of her blanket sleeper, and we made our way back to her room. A re-start of her Baby Einstein lullaby CD, and all was right with the world again.

With a clearer head this afternoon, I Googled “overcoming children’s fear of the dark”, and found several useful parenting articles, all with the same words of wisdom. For instance, you should not let your youngsters watch scary depictions on television before bed.

I learned this one years ago. When the Older One was four and came running into our room screaming about blood dripping on his walls, I knew immediately it was because his father let him watch The Shining the afternoon before!

I did, however, learn something new in my cyber research.  Apparently, children who are prone to a fear of darkness also happen to have over-active imaginations. In the toddler and pre-school years, these children, do not have to ability to separate fact from fiction. When the lights go off, they have no more distractions, and their imaginations take full reign. Makes sense.

Except, my child doesn’t have an “over-active” imagination. She plays pretend like I did at her age. She plays house, Barbies, school…nothing extreme.  That could not be the source of her fear.

Then I actually listened to her as we went about our evening activities. We went to the basement to bring up boxes for Christmas decorations, and as I opened the door and started down the steps, I heard, “This is a deep, dark, cave where the witch lives.  Shhhhhh!”

Coming back up the stairs…”We’re astronaughts blasting off to the moon!”

When I probed for what she might be afraid of in her room…”He’s round and green and has ears on his legs and he’s gonna steal my Christmas presents!”

Whoa!! Girlfriend’s got an overdose of the imagination gene! No wonder she can’t sleep at night!

Now, armed with a newfound knowledge of how to turn on her bedside lamp and a neon pink glow stick bracelet, she is fast asleep. I also put away that copy of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” that I found lying beside her bed.

I’m hoping for a peaceful night’s sleep too…as long as I can get the twisty exorcism lady out of my head.

Sweet Dreams,

Stiletto Momma