nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around

William has been having terrible nightmares every night. Monsters, bugs, snakes and "creatures" are in his bed almost every 3 a.m. and I am exhausted. He and Fritz share a room and most of the time, it is great. They usually don't wake each other up in the night and I love to hear them chatting in the morning.

Last night, William had a particularly bad dream. He wanted me to lay with him in his bed but he couldn't go back to sleep. We prayed that he would not feel scared anymore and I told him over and over that he was safe and that Mom and Dad would protect him. He still couldn't sleep and after an hour, I finally brought him to David who snuggled him up and he slept the rest of the night with him.

I woke up to William playing on the floor of our bedroom but rolled over to go back to sleep until I heard Fritz start crying to get out of his crib. William got up and rushed into the bedroom and I heard him say, "It's OK, Fritz! Is something scaring you? Mommy and Daddy will take care of you. I will take care of you too. It's OK, baby." Then, he ran to the bathroom and yelled, "It's OK, Fritz! I'm coming!" as he did his business.

As I laid in bed and overheard this whole conversation, I just started crying. Parenting is so hard sometimes. You don't get paid. There are no promotions, no performance reviews, no praise... but when stuff like this happens I just want to hug myself because I think I must be doing something right to have such a kind, caring boy. I feel like I tear myself down a lot when I'm doing my "mom work". I yell more than I want to. I say "just a minute" too much. I don't play LEGOs enough. I don't do enough "fun traditions"... all those things weigh on me, but I'm trying to remember that I do some things right and those good things are important. 

Also, I love this blog post about what it means to be "a good mom". You should read it because I'm betting you are a good mom and didn't even know it.