Drowning

Rachel just woke up from a "scary dream" which recurs fairly often -- it's one in which she, Drew and I are all drowning. I've had a long talk with her before about life jackets, and how we would never let her swim/go on a boat without one, how they keep people afloat who can't swim, etc. -- but to no avail, it seems.

I have no idea why she has this dream; we haven't allowed her to watch any movies that involve people drowning. I feel wildly guilty that I didn't renew her swim lessons; she thinks the pool is just on spring break. Gotta do that the next chance I get.

Tonight while I was in the midst of a long conversation with Drew, Rachel opened the door at the bottom of the attic stairs: "Mom, I had a really scary dream," and it was about drowning. She wanted to know quite the details about the life jackets -- what if they become unbuckled? ("the people who would take us on the boat would check to see if they were buckled properly"). What if there weren't any life jackets on the boat? ("we would never go on a boat without life jackets"). What if we went on a boat all alone? ("We'd never be all alone on a boat"). I told her I have never in my life been on a boat without a life jacket. As soon as the words left my mouth I realized that wasn't quite true, but I didn't want to take the words back. They seemed to reassure her.

We chatted a little about lifeguards -- what if the lifeguards drowned? ("They don't drown, they're great swimmers. That's why they're lifeguards!").

The whole conversation lasted around 15 minutes.

"Thanks for giving me such good advice," she said, as I kissed her goodnight.