Almost everyone has a nightmare once in a while so we all know how scary and real they can feel. As a parent we also hate to see our little ones terrified in the middle of the night of some perceived danger that is hiding from them in the dark.
So we wanted to pass along our top tips to help your children turn monsters into mermaids and deal with the after effects of a nightmare:
- Do NOT dismiss their fear, it’s real to them. Let them know it’s ok to feel afraid after a nightmare.
- Talk it through. Label it - it was a bad dream. You’re awake now, you’re safe, everything is ok.
- Be calm. Let them know that you’re there. They want to feel safe and protected and no-one does that better than mum!
- Bring on the bullshit!! Magical mummy love is going to protect the room and turn those monsters into mermaids. If this doesn’t work, you could always go with a super cool looking rock that you find on a walk together which is the healing rock of destiny that makes bad dreams disappear or a protection stone?? Of course, if they’re too old for magic, there’s always a dreamcatcher.
- You guessed it, we had to fit it in here - anight light! But seriously .. a calm, soothing light at night time does wonders for chasing away monsters. I know the first thing I do when I wake up from a bad dream is to switch on the light. Anyone else?!
- Encourage them to talk about it in the morning. Have them draw the dream or write about it. This will help the scary thoughts to lose their power. You could even have an alternate ending or introduce a new character into the discussion. Make something that was scary, now fun.
We really hope that these tips help to ease your little one back to sleep after a bad dream.
What do you do when your child has a nightmare? Do you have any tried and tested fixes to turn the monsters into mermaids once they’ve already reared their mean old scary heads?!