Irrational Responses

At a time when I'd hoped to be sleeping, a time too late to be called night and too early to be called morning, my youngest son came to my room. He complained about the nightmares. I hugged him. He cried.

What do you do when that happens?

Normally, I would try to rationally explain that there was nothing to fear and that it was only a dream. But, years ago I listened to a talk given by Lynn Scoresby where he encouraged parents to periodically try irrational responses in these emotional situations. My recent writing efforts have improved my imagination, and thus my confidence in the irrational. So, I decided to try it. Let's face it, my son wasn't in my room so I could explain things to him. He just wanted to feel better.

Our irrational conversation was as follows:

Me: Did you you punch the monsters in the nose?
Son: [smirking between sniffles] no
Me: Did you know that if you punch a monster in the nose they shrink to about that big [holding hand out to show the size of a quarter] so that you can stomp on them like she does in Spirited Away?
Son: [chuckling] no
Me: It's true. The next time there's a monster in your dream just bop him in the nose and step on him before he can scurry away.
Son: OK

He gave his mom a hug and went right back to bed happy as could be.

Try it some time. It's a lot of fun.

Side note: In case you aren't familiar with it, Spirited Away is a bizarre Miyazaki movie. Come to think of it all his movies are bizarre.
But the kids always love them.