🙋♀️ 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.
I think that’s such a good point! Sometimes we need a bank of examples to draw from to confront our fears. I love that Lemony Snicket helped her with that! 😆
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!
Haha, I can so related to the adult nightmares you have. I've had similar dreams which is just so telling about **priorities**. Let me know if it works with your kiddo but hopefully you won't have to use the tip any time soon!
Fair enough about the royal drama! I've been keeping abreast because it seems like everyone around me is talking about it but I feel really bad for Kate and just can't bear to join the circus.
And I really wish adults would read more children's books so no judgement and full encouragement from my end! Haha
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!
Oh gosh, dolls are one of my top fears so your troll doll would have never let me sleep again haha. Thank goodness these are in your past!
I love the lead-in chats at bedtime. It's one of the ways my mom would get me excited about going to bed... the adventures that awaited in my dreams. Love that you have this tradition with your kiddos too.
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.
That was a recurring one, too. Ugh, it was awful - it was noisy too, like I could hear people not yelling, but chattering almost. My son could never tell me he was having nightmares, but whenever he woke upset, I tried to explain that he might have movies in his head that were scary and not real!
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!
I love that you let them know that you have bad dreams too. I think that’s so smart because it’s also letting them know they may still have them in various forms throughout their lives. And agreed on Kate—you’d think they’d be better at this!
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.
They are definitely getting less frequent and when they do happen, they are shorter. But the first one was awful, he was about 18 months and we thought he was in horrible pain?
🙋♀️ 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 :)
Hope you like it!
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??"
Okay so as someone who LOVED I Dream of Jeannie growing up, I totally love (but do feel bad) that those eyes have haunted you. 🤣🤣🤣
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.
I think that’s such a good point! Sometimes we need a bank of examples to draw from to confront our fears. I love that Lemony Snicket helped her with that! 😆
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!!
This is it exactly! We can't bear for them to be *so* out of reach; when they stumble we sit back and kind of relish the fall. 😬
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!
Haha, I can so related to the adult nightmares you have. I've had similar dreams which is just so telling about **priorities**. Let me know if it works with your kiddo but hopefully you won't have to use the tip any time soon!
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.
Fair enough about the royal drama! I've been keeping abreast because it seems like everyone around me is talking about it but I feel really bad for Kate and just can't bear to join the circus.
And I really wish adults would read more children's books so no judgement and full encouragement from my end! Haha
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!
Oh gosh, dolls are one of my top fears so your troll doll would have never let me sleep again haha. Thank goodness these are in your past!
I love the lead-in chats at bedtime. It's one of the ways my mom would get me excited about going to bed... the adventures that awaited in my dreams. Love that you have this tradition with your kiddos too.
I love the idea for this, and the whole thing itself. Way to go, Sri!
Thank you, Sarah! Always appreciate your support. ❤️
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.
Omg Robin those are truly terrifying. A tornado of bodies?!?!!! Hopefully your son didn’t have these crazy nightmares?!
That was a recurring one, too. Ugh, it was awful - it was noisy too, like I could hear people not yelling, but chattering almost. My son could never tell me he was having nightmares, but whenever he woke upset, I tried to explain that he might have movies in his head that were scary and not real!
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!
I love that you let them know that you have bad dreams too. I think that’s so smart because it’s also letting them know they may still have them in various forms throughout their lives. And agreed on Kate—you’d think they’d be better at this!
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.
Oh no! I’ve heard night terrors are something you grow out of. Is that true? It must be so terrifying for him to experience (and you to witness)!
They are definitely getting less frequent and when they do happen, they are shorter. But the first one was awful, he was about 18 months and we thought he was in horrible pain?
Thank goodness it's improved! It's so hard when you have no idea what's going on and they can't articulate it either.