Anyway, her nightmares seem to revolve around bugs so I was not surprised when she came running into our room, jumped into our bed and cried, "There are bugs everywhere." Not fully awake, she crawled in bed next to me and I took her in my arms and cuddled her. I whispered to her that she was having a bad dream and it was only her imagination. Then I said to her, don't worry, nothing can hurt you*. I have to put an asterisk by that statement because although I was saying it in order to soothe her, I found myself disturbed by its untruthfulness. I immediately felt dishonest for saying it. Of course there are things that can hurt you. There are bugs that can hurt you. There are people that can hurt you. There are a lot of things that can hurt you and there was a part of me, the part that hates to lie and is overly concerned with accuracy, that wanted to clarify that statement to her. But I suppose in raising a child, especially one at that age, it isn't the truth that I was trying to protect, it was her innocence. As I was holding her in my arms I kept thinking about those things that could hurt her and it made me hold her even more tightly.
Her nightmare continued to make her whimper and toss. Finally, although still mostly asleep, she sat up in bed and said that she was going back to her room because this room was just "too buggy". I was a bit relieved since throughout this episode, I had a Sammy clinging to the other side of me and was starting to feel a bit claustrophobic. She crawled to the edge of the bed and groggily peered over asking if she could make it back to her room without stepping on any bugs. I reminded her it was just her imagination and, with my asterisk tucked neatly in my head, I told her nothing can hurt her.
