Monday, April 16, 2012

Nightmares

Zane woke up one morning from a nightmare.  He woke up crying, disoriented.  He had likely been dreaming about the Army ants from Monster Bug Wars, I thought.  Or the praying mantids.  Or the--ick--extremely enormous cockroaches.  I had nightmares about those cockroaches myself. I calmed him as best I could. 

"Mama, why did you turn into a monster?" Zane was still crying, but he was fully awake now.  As he told the story, I turned into a flying monster in his dream.

I did all the mother stuff that you're supposed to do in these situations.  I comforted my sweet child, hugged him, and assured him that I had no intention of turning into any sort of flying monster now or at any time in the future.

But I was irritated about the entire thing.

Really? I was thinking.

Are you kidding me?

I know, it's childish. He's just a kid.  I really shouldn't be upset with him for his subconscious pulling a fast one. I was probably more cranky about losing sleep than anything else, which is usually at the root of most of my crankiness.  Anyway, you can't really stop a nightmare--they just sort of appear and you're helpless until you wake up. 

Still...I was annoyed.  Here I am, making sure my son is loved and fed and clothed, reading him books, playing "Crazy Lions in the Living Room" with him, holding him when he's sickly, etc...and I'm the monster in his nightmare. 

And not even a decent monster!  I just fly.  That's a silly power for me to have.  I'm scared of heights, fer cryin' out loud!  No horns, no fangs, no flames...just wings.  Bah. 

I'll bet if Zane had a nightmare about his father turning into a monster, he'd have had some flames...
 

9 comments:

  1. Ha! It is weird what a subconscious does.

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  2. Hi, there. Stopping in from A to Z and happy to have found you! I'm all signed up, following and have "liked" in FB--looking forward to reading more!

    Amy From The Mom Cave

    www.fromthemomcave.blogspot.com

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  3. Haha!! Alex did that to me one night as well.....I turned into something that ate him. Really?!?!

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  4. This is the second nightmare post I've read. But a kid's nightmare is just awful. Fortunately my kids rarely have nightmares. Weird dreams with dancing penguins and flying whales? Yes. But nightmares? Not so many.

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  5. i know and after all we do for them--the nerve ;)

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  6. My son has night terrors. You know? The ones in which they look fully awake and talk to you, but are screaming and shaking the whole time? Yeah. Fun times.

    My sons are forever having to write about a "happy memory" or a "good time" or their favorite person at school. I AM NEVER THAT PERSON OR EVENT. *sigh*

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  7. We had a couple night terrors here years ago, but never any bad dreams that anyone could recollect (or be willing to tell me about...maybe I was that awful in them). Meanwhile, I STILL vividly remember some of my childhood nightmares. The night terrors thing about not waking them...um, yeah, I'm going to need to do something or how do I even know that's what it is!?!?!

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  8. I remember those nights of bad dreams...sometimes the kids would be very very scared! i was never the monster though...that would be even scarier I think!!
    I am your newest follower..pls follow back if you can.

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  9. Hahaha! That's hilarious!! I never thought to take my manifestations in other people's dreams personally!!! Have you checked a dream interpretation book to see what it REALLY means??

    And flying's not such a bad superpower, is it?!

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