Miriam also struggles with nightmares. She has bad dreams about ants crawling on her. She has dreams about monkeys. Just the other night she had a dream that Joseph ate the tail of a shrimp (not sure why that is disturbing enough to wake mom up...).
I try really hard to be sensitive to her fears. I remember being scared as a child going to bed at night. I thought about it enough to base where I wanted my bed to be on it. (Further from the door, so anyone coming in would get my sister first. Equidistant from the window, so if someone came in that way, I'd have a 50/50 chance.) So I want her to be comfortable coming to me with her fears, but sometimes after bedtime, I am not as patient as I want to be with her. I am tired, and how many times do I have to close the closet door and assure her there are no goblins or monsters in her room!!!
So we have suggested that she read her scriptures, pray, and not watch or read anything scary before bed. One night Jack gave her a blessing in the middle of the night to help calm her fears. I am grateful she is learning to use these strategies to overcome (or at least deal with) her fears so she can sleep better.
1 comment:
I try to be patient with night fears, too, because I remember what it was like to be so scared (of the dark, in my case). But I agree, sometimes it's hard in the middle of the night!
I'd have had a hard time sympathizing with her over the dream about the shrimp, though! LOL
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