Of dreams and nightmares...

Today my lil one Trisha came down sweaty and crying after her nightly nap. It was quite a surprise from her usual cheerful self. Most mornings I would be busy in the kitchen fixing the breakfast/lunch to take to work basically busy, my daughter would walk in thinking I haven't heard her. I would play along and surprise her!!!

I heard scream and cries. My first instinct was, that my daughters got into a fight. I gave it a minute to settle down before dropping everything and running up.

She quickly told me that there is an aunty hiding behind the closet who is trying to take her away. I tried reasoning with my 3 year old that she had seen a bad dream and how when you wake up the world is still beautiful as supp to be. trying to cite
Barney's example to make my point. in between my other lil one interjected asking "but what is the aunty's name"...hello there is no aunty. so after checking the rooms and re-assurance from me and V my daughter settled into her routine. Checking with me every 10 mins abt the non-existant aunty's existance.


I was left thinking, how much my 3 year olds are assimilating their environment and what we say. I concluded I'm partly to blame for the situation. Just yesterday, when I took my kids to the park, I noticed T branching away and following some big kid aimlessly. She has this fascination for kids older than her. I told her quite firmly that she needs to be aware of her surroundings and check where we are. Going on to explain that there may be some bad people who will take kids away so one needs to be very careful. Much like how we tell kids abt crossing the road.

Today I was left with thinking "oh oh....maybe I didnt put the point across correctly/I scared her a little too much. where should I have stopped".

After mulling over it for a while and going through the guilt trip I realised I did
what I thought was right. As a parent I have to tell them what is right/wrong even if it hurts. Maybe next time I'll dial it down a little but never am I going to not tell my kids as is and let them think everything is fine and has no consequences. I sure learnt a lesson today and I'm sure many more to come in the road to parenting.