Children Coping: Mommy Do You Have Bad Things Inside...

Last night was riddled with horror movie style nightmares for me. Not sure why...haven't seen a horror movie in over a week and they rarely give me nightmares. It was kind of weird because I can't remember what happened in the nightmares, but as I drifted in and out of restless sleep, my dreams played tricks on me and made me feel like they were continuing while I was awake.

At some point last night, my 4 year old came to me, needing me to put him back to bed. He asked, "Mommy, do you have bad things inside of you?"

A little confused (and maybe even a bit delusional in sleep-deprived state, I thought he was suggesting that I might be evil and that was the "bad things" he was concerned), I said, "No," and took him back to bed.

When I woke up in the morning, I was sure that he had some to our room in the middle of the night, but wasn't 100% sure on what he asked me, so I asked him, "When you came to my room last night, did you ask me if I had bad things inside of me?"

He said, "Yes."

I asked, "What did you mean?"

He said matter-of-factly, "Like Krisha. I wanted to ask about that."

Krisha is our cat we had to put down last week because she had cancerous tumors all over her belly and the vets couldn't do a thing. My heart sank, but I was also proud of my son to be able to talk about things and share his fears. I assured him I was okay and thanked him for being concerned. He was in the backseat of the car when I asked him that, but I was sure to give him and extra big hug when I dropped him off at preschool.