Nightmares = Hero Time

Parents, does this scenario sound familiar? You’re sound asleep when suddenly a blood curdling scream is heard throughout the house. Within seconds, you are on your feet and running to your children’s bedroom. A child is sitting up in bed breathing heavily, with heart thumping wildly. You yourself are experiencing a rapid heartbeat. The child reaches out to you and you sit beside them and slowly calm them down. Moments earlier, they were in the midst of some horrible situation, but now they are comfortably resting in your presence.

I live for those moments.

Yes, it sounds terrible that deep down I enjoy those moments when my children have horrible nightmares. The thing is, I can remember having those same dreams as a kid. I would wake up from some monster or insanely scary predicament and need a comforting touch to calm me back down. Those sweet moments after the nightmare are dear to my heart because I get to be that comforting touch to my children.

We dads greatly desire to be our children’s hero. Our children are the most precious thing in the world and we want them to see us as someone who will love and protect them. During a nightmare, we are that hero. We are a superhero that is able to leap into any situation and rescue them from the scary world that is Dreamland.

Next time you hear that scream that shatters your peaceful slumber; don’t think of it as another drawback of the job. Look at it as an opportunity to be the hero that your child so desperately wants and that you so desperately want to be.