The Pinch Of A Dream

A couple of weeks ago, Sarah had a bad dream, a very vivid bad dream. I found her sitting up in bed with a tear-soaked face and awfully scared. She told me that a crab had floated in from her window. So, she grabbed the crab and squeezed it. It was red inside. The crab then reached out and pinched her.

She was completely convinced that the dream was real. I calmed her down and tried to explain that it was a bad dream. It wasn’t real. That it was only in her imagination.

Well, she took this to mean that red crabs that float in from your window and pinch you are called “bad dreams”. She wants nothing to do with “dreams” of any sort now.

At bedtime, she’ll ask me if the "dreams" are coming tonight. I try to explain again that dreams are only thoughts in your head. There are good ones and bad ones, but none of them can hurt you. They aren’t real. She’ll then look me right in the eye and tell me that they definitely do hurt. They pinch. And they’re red.

Oh. She doesn’t understand my explanation. In her mind, dreams are floating crabs. I’m not sure what else to tell her. How do you explain what a dream is to a 3 year-old and since when do crabs float through the air?