Bad Dreams and Other Stuff

My son has been having bad dreams lately. It's not unusual for him, but this cycle seems particularly worse than others being that he's been up nearly every night for a week crying for me. He's such a sensitive, worrisome little boy that he makes *me* worry for *him*.

The first couple were about being kidnapped. He dreamed that he was playing on our front lawn and that a man pulled up in a white truck so he laid down flat on the grass and tried not to be seen. But the man tried to grab him anyway, so my son kicked him in the (as we Italians like to say) ga-gootz.

You should have seen my son telling me about this dream. Despite his heightened mental state, he tried to remember his diplomacy and only pointed to his privates saying, "I kicked him here, Mom."

I told him he did exactly the right thing, even though it was only a dream.

This dream, or another slightly different version, went on for 2 nights and the last two nights have been about being robbed. He was a bit too out of it during the night to tell me the particulars of the last ones, but I get the gist. The victim of said robbery has twice been his Great Grandpa, who is 90 years old and I'm sure someone that my son, even at his young age, can identify as a "victim" type because of his advanced age. The hero of both dreams has been his Pa, my father, who at 63 years old has the looks, body, physique, and attitude of a man half his age (I hope that didn't sound reverse Oedipal, not meant to be!) and definitely someone my son looks up to as the definition of strong and safe.

The robbery dreams didn't seem to bother him *as much* as the others, but enough to wake him up during the night calling for me. Mommy's work is never done.

I know where the dreams come from. The kidnapping ones stem from seeing news coverage of little Madeline, the baby that was snatched from a hotel room while her negligent parents were out having a good old time. The robbery ones come from an incident here by us recently where a local Old Navy store was robbed at gunpoint.

The whole situation makes me wonder if I am too honest with my kids, if I allow them to see too much. I don't always turn off the news when they're in the room because I believe that sheltering them makes them naive. But I have to wonder, in my quest to keep my children aware of how our world can work, if I'm letting them know too much. Maybe I *should* shelter them a bit more from the harsh realities of life. Maybe I *should* switch the channel when they come into the room. I don't want them to grow up distrustful and leery, I just want them to know what's going on and be smart.

But when my poor son is waking up with bad dreams, I have to wonder if what I'm doing is right.

Anyway, other than that, just wanted to mention that I saw the new Crowded House video for the first release "Don't Stop Now". Brilliant little video, great song and may I just say that Neil Finn looks...HUMMINA.