Saturday, September 13, 2008

Happiness In An Aerosol Can

When Nate was about 4 years old he had his first real nightmare. I can't remember exactly what it was about but he talked about it for days. Over the years he's had quite a few more (usually about bugs, fires, falling, or being separated from Abi or Kenny) and so praying to not have nightmares has become a big part of our bedtime prayer time.

The other night, after our bedtime prayers, Nate said that he really wanted to trust God but he was just too afraid to go to sleep. After a few nights of hearing how scared Nate was, Abi and Kenny were starting to say that they were scared, too. I had to act fast!

And that's when I got my ingenious idea. I could almost see the light bulb glowing above my head.

I took a can of home fragrance spray- Spiced Cider- that my friend, Twila sent me a while back, and sprayed a shot in the kids' room. When Nate asked what it was I told him it was "sweet dreams spray". That as they fell asleep it would make them think of good things like apple pie and candy and make them have the sweetest dreams.

The minute they caught a whiff of the heavenly scent they totally fell for it.

So, I kissed them goodnight I begged God to make it work.

It did, and Nate hasn't had a bad dream all week. Every night the kids spray and I pray.

Hey, (defensive tone, here) kids have been fed bigger lies by their parents all throughout history and they grow up just fine. And my lie isn't really a lie. The scent does make them think of apple pie as they drift off. Abi said so.

Now if I could only figure out a way to make them fall for the "makes-you-cheerful-while-you-do-your-chores" spray, or the "makes-you-want-to-stop-sucking-your-thumb" spray.

Sigh... A mom can dream can't she? (and now, my dreams can be spiced cider scented)

3 comments:

Twila G. said...

How funny! You are definitely very creative. I would never have guessed that as a use for room spray. Hmmm I wonder if you could market that somehow....

Anonymous said...

Thanks for a pleasant and very rare reminder -
my kids started doing chores normally and naturally as soon as they could stand. by the time they were 3y.o. they were helping with laundry, cooking and washing dishes. As well as picking up anything they got out to play or work with.
they would sing joyfully any time of day or night, and enjoyed chore time as much as any other,... well, playground time maybe was more fun, but they trust Yhvh in everything, are joyful every day, and are afraid of nothing. (and they're late teens now).
I'd love to visit/maybe stay in mongolia some time. No idea how, though. Yhvh's Plan be done.
Yahshuaslave Jeff, in tulsaoklahoma

J said...

What a good mommy! I have a friend who gave her kid a kazoo to scare away monsters, I thought that was neat too.