I felt bad for her and figured that talking about it might help. Little Princess had other ideas.
It might be important for you to understand that I view myself as quite intelligent. I could read when I was three, I skipped ahead in school. When I was young there were times when being smart was my only source of self-worth. You can just see my downfall coming, can't you?
"Being smart" matters to me sometimes. NO, let me rephrase that: "...being SO smart matters to me sometimes..." Once I had a minor breakdown when, as a new-to-the-field therapist, I garnered a client who was smarter than me. I didn't know what the trouble was. Luckily, I had a brilliant supervisor who saw what was up. She laughed when I was explaining difficulties I had relating to my client - and she called it like she saw it: "You're just upset because he's smarter than you." GASP! Yep, that was it. This same supervisor told me I dressed like a biker mama, but that's another story - she laughed when she said that, too.
OK, now you know I'm going to use my super-duper brilliance to help my granddaughter deal with her nightmare, right? I didn't even have to think hard - "Hey, how about if Winnie-The-Pooh tells me what you dreamed?"
"No!"
Ha, I am not bothered by this - lose the battle, but win the war. I'll come at it when she's distracted. And we were already heading up to play a couple Nick Jr. computer games. OK, we play a little - go on to another game. Ah, here's my chance - we have to wait while a new game - with a cute little doggie - loads.
"Hey, what if the doggie tells me what you dreamed? What do you think of that - he can tell me while we wait for the game? Hmmmmm...? Then Gammie might be able to help you not feel bad about it..." (offered with my best - "Isn't Gammie cute" - face).
"Mmmm. I guess so." (with no enthusiasm and a strong hint of "don't wanna").
"OK, Doggie - will you please tell Gammie what Little Princess dreamed about?"
"Mmmmm"
Pleadingly: "It's OK Doggie, just tell me."
Here it comes ...
"Woof, woof, argh, argh".
Damn! Now I'm dealing with four year olds who are smarter than me!
© 2007 Karen Caterson (Originally published 11/10/07 on the blog Square-Peg Reflections.