My 3 year old woke up this morning crying at around 4:30am. Not too different from most mornings, except for the crying part. When I inquired as to the source of his distress, he briefly recounted that his puppet was stolen. More inquiries from myself and my wife brought out more of the story. It seems that a bad man, a witch in this case, had stolen his cow puppet. We consoled him as best as we were able and within a short time he was back to his normal self wanting to go downstairs and watch "Handy Manny" on the Disney Channel.

The moral?
Dreams don't make sense. Mine certainly don't to me, and I don't attempt to try to delve into the psyche and determine what generated his. It's best to deal with the immediate issue, that of his distress. Dreams fade quickly and while you may remember most of them at a later time it's best just to let them go. Good dreams fade as fast as bad ones, so what can we do?

New parents... when bad dreams intrude on your youngster's life, comfort them. Don't try to explain that this wasn't real, because that concept is beyond the scope of most toddlers. Give them love and redirect the dream to real life, where immediate happiness awaits.

Just a tidbit o'ken...