I almost can’t “bear” to write this post.
Pun intended.
So, we have yet another T1 crisis…this time involving a bear nightmare she had and now she claims she is too scared to sleep in her room. Lets backtrack to our previous T1 crises, shall we? Well, there were several episodes that sent her into a complete and total uproar: butterfly-gate, dust-gate (yes, DUST), bee-gate, dragonfly-gate, fly-gate, ant-gate…and now, ladies & gentlemen, I present to you – BEAR-gate…….I am still thanking God that the cicadas didn’t appear in our area a couple of years ago! What a mess that would have been!
This child was in hysterics one night crying that the bears were out to get her. Her dad tried calming her down, but of course she poured the drama on a little lot thicker.
“I can’t close my eyes because the bear will come and eat me!”
“I can’t go to sleep because the bear is living in my dreams!”
“I can’t sleep in my room anymore because it’s scary in there and the bear will find me!”
WHEW! After we stopped laughing…. We asked her what the bear looked like – was it a Pooh Bear, a Coca-Cola Bear, Smokey the Bear, a Chicago Bear, Goldilocks & the Three Bears….we needed answers! See, the thing is that she wasn’t even asleep when this bear “nightmare” occurred. We had gotten stricter about bedtimes (it’s almost time for school to start) and the girls starting out in their own beds (vs them falling asleep anywhere else in the house and us taking them up to bed). T2 has no problem falling asleep on her own, but T1 had been coming up with a new reason every night as to why she didn’t have to start out sleeping in her room. Needless to say, this episode took the cake. And like any other drama-filled night in our home, we investigated and ruled it a case of a child who just didn’t want to go to bed.
As much as we wanted to coddle her, we knew that we had to stick to our guns or it would be back to square 1. We let her get all of the panic out, calmed her down, asked questions, said a little prayer for her, told her that nightmares are rare and almost never repeated themselves, and sent her RIGHT. BACK. TO .BED!
But before then, offered her one of these…and she refused LOL!
And what do you know – 5 minutes later, she was sound asleep in her bed. I bet she is “dreaming” up a brand new way to drive us completely nuts at bedtime.
Woosahhhhhh,
-Val aka “Unapologetic Mom”
Unapologetically Us 