🙋♀️ I’ll start first about my craziest nightmare: a beautiful mall that was bustling just moments before is closed now and completely silent. Im stuck inside and I see these beautiful, edible chocolate butterflies flying about and I start chasing one. I end up on the escalator only to realize it has a blade sliding down the handles to slice riders in half… 😱
This is such a great list, Sri! When I was a kid I used to have nightmares about having eyes in the back of my head. I can still picture them. I would wake up screaming I HAVE EYES IN THE BACK OF MY HEAD! My dad would check and say, Nope, no eyes back here but I swear even awake I SAW them with my own two front eyes. And they did everything the front eyes did. Blinked, cried. But they looked different. It took me YEARS to figure out they were the same eyes from the opening of I Dream of Jeanie when Jeanie gets sucked back in her bottle. I guess those eyes must have freaked out my subconscious even though I loved that show! (And yes 85% of the people reading this will be like, "I dream of whaaaaa??"
I love these suggestions, Sri! I find "Dream Animals" very soothing, and obviously adore "Where the Wild Things Are". I'll check out the other ones, they look gorgeous.
One book that helped my daughter over come the fear of going to sleep, ironically is "The Dark" by Lemony Snicket :) I think maybe books that bring you face to face with your fear help you see it differently. Another one is "Fortunately." I think because the horrible stuff that happens there is so comical, and because it balances the good and the bad so cleverly.
Oh my gosh!! You are right! We can’t decide if they are living a fairytale or a nightmare! And we kind of want it both ways, right? We want to believe that fairytales are possible, but we’re also jealous and jaded, so we want seemingly perfect people to suffer a little bit too.
Sri, I love this post! I was so not into the Kate madness but then I read such good takes from so many writers on Substack and I got sucked in...
Nightmares- I have a vivid one from childhood where my closet turned into a jungle with a huge snake in it. Now my nightmares involve being back in school but didn't know it and I have a final exam. It's the inner fears of my over-achiever coming out!
I am curious about the bathroom idea. One of my kiddos has pretty vivid bad dreams, it's a worth a try!
Sharing nightmares is fun! I had such vivid dreams as a child (and still as an adult but they don’t scare me as often now) and I was terrified to fall asleep. Two of my most memorable included a troll factory where the evil trolls came alive (we had found a vintage troll in a deck remodel that was dingy as all hell) and another where an alligator was in my cousins back yard and then was also definitely under my parents bed after they made me a pallet on the floor in their room to help try to ease me back to sleep. Not cool dreams.
I’ve never heard the potty trick! We usually go the reassuring chat route. But found it helpful for a while to include “tonight I’ll dream about” chats into our bedtime routine. Love this!
Still have Where The Wild Things Are on our shelf - it’s the best! I always worried about my son’s nightmares, because I had doozies as a child - a wolf creeping up the driveway, a tornado made of bodies rushing toward my unknowing parents to crush them or sweep them up, and scenarios where people think I’m dead & I’m trying to talk to them & they can’t see me. Maybe I just needed to pee?! I’ve never heard that but what a great strategy to help kids.
We do a similar bathroom and back to bed routine but I like your spin on it! I try to reassure my kids that I have bad dreams too but they're not real and we're here with them to keep them safe. I've been having a lot of dreams about work lately which certainly seems like a nightmare. I just can't escape it! As for Kate, I think you're right that all the speculation is a welcome escape from reality. But we can all agree the monarchy has created this PR nightmare for themselves by being so elusive. Of course people are going to speculate!
My son has a history of night terrors (inherited from me) and they got much less severe once we took him straight to the loo. I do think there is something physiological waking him up.
🙋♀️ I’ll start first about my craziest nightmare: a beautiful mall that was bustling just moments before is closed now and completely silent. Im stuck inside and I see these beautiful, edible chocolate butterflies flying about and I start chasing one. I end up on the escalator only to realize it has a blade sliding down the handles to slice riders in half… 😱
I hadn't heard of Nocturne Dreams Recipe - thanks :)
This is such a great list, Sri! When I was a kid I used to have nightmares about having eyes in the back of my head. I can still picture them. I would wake up screaming I HAVE EYES IN THE BACK OF MY HEAD! My dad would check and say, Nope, no eyes back here but I swear even awake I SAW them with my own two front eyes. And they did everything the front eyes did. Blinked, cried. But they looked different. It took me YEARS to figure out they were the same eyes from the opening of I Dream of Jeanie when Jeanie gets sucked back in her bottle. I guess those eyes must have freaked out my subconscious even though I loved that show! (And yes 85% of the people reading this will be like, "I dream of whaaaaa??"
I love these suggestions, Sri! I find "Dream Animals" very soothing, and obviously adore "Where the Wild Things Are". I'll check out the other ones, they look gorgeous.
One book that helped my daughter over come the fear of going to sleep, ironically is "The Dark" by Lemony Snicket :) I think maybe books that bring you face to face with your fear help you see it differently. Another one is "Fortunately." I think because the horrible stuff that happens there is so comical, and because it balances the good and the bad so cleverly.
Oh my gosh!! You are right! We can’t decide if they are living a fairytale or a nightmare! And we kind of want it both ways, right? We want to believe that fairytales are possible, but we’re also jealous and jaded, so we want seemingly perfect people to suffer a little bit too.
You’ve got my mind going!!
Sri, I love this post! I was so not into the Kate madness but then I read such good takes from so many writers on Substack and I got sucked in...
Nightmares- I have a vivid one from childhood where my closet turned into a jungle with a huge snake in it. Now my nightmares involve being back in school but didn't know it and I have a final exam. It's the inner fears of my over-achiever coming out!
I am curious about the bathroom idea. One of my kiddos has pretty vivid bad dreams, it's a worth a try!
Great book recs, as always! I kind of want to buy them for myself (given there are no kids around me to give them to).
Also, I am purposely staying away from the Royal drama. I worry about the hours it could consume if I dipped my water in there.
Sharing nightmares is fun! I had such vivid dreams as a child (and still as an adult but they don’t scare me as often now) and I was terrified to fall asleep. Two of my most memorable included a troll factory where the evil trolls came alive (we had found a vintage troll in a deck remodel that was dingy as all hell) and another where an alligator was in my cousins back yard and then was also definitely under my parents bed after they made me a pallet on the floor in their room to help try to ease me back to sleep. Not cool dreams.
I’ve never heard the potty trick! We usually go the reassuring chat route. But found it helpful for a while to include “tonight I’ll dream about” chats into our bedtime routine. Love this!
I love the idea for this, and the whole thing itself. Way to go, Sri!
Still have Where The Wild Things Are on our shelf - it’s the best! I always worried about my son’s nightmares, because I had doozies as a child - a wolf creeping up the driveway, a tornado made of bodies rushing toward my unknowing parents to crush them or sweep them up, and scenarios where people think I’m dead & I’m trying to talk to them & they can’t see me. Maybe I just needed to pee?! I’ve never heard that but what a great strategy to help kids.
We do a similar bathroom and back to bed routine but I like your spin on it! I try to reassure my kids that I have bad dreams too but they're not real and we're here with them to keep them safe. I've been having a lot of dreams about work lately which certainly seems like a nightmare. I just can't escape it! As for Kate, I think you're right that all the speculation is a welcome escape from reality. But we can all agree the monarchy has created this PR nightmare for themselves by being so elusive. Of course people are going to speculate!
My son has a history of night terrors (inherited from me) and they got much less severe once we took him straight to the loo. I do think there is something physiological waking him up.