As a parent, bestowed on you is a super-power, and no, I’m not talking about breastfeeding (joke) I’m talking about the power to make dreams come true.
In the heads of our little bambinos are hopes and dreams, these dreams transcend age, the dreams may vary, but the dreaming itself does not. The dream might be for a specific toy, to meet santa claus or to receive a visit from the tooth fairy. We have the power to make a lot of these dreams come true.
Last weekend Erin had a dream. She can’t speak, but for a few choice words (mum, dad, no….mostly no actually…). I knew she had a dream when out of these select words popped out two very clear words “iggle piggle” …and then three words “iggle piggle piggle”. For those of you who don’t know who iggle piggle is, he is a character from a relatively new but popular children’s programme called ‘In the Night Garden’. It would seem that my eighteen month old had taken a shine to one of the main characters, a blue boy (man?) brandishing a red blanky with his own little theme tune (”yes, my name is iggle piggle, iggle piggle, iggle piggle piggle…..”). It became apparent that Erin was trying to sing the song when she was saying “iggle piggle piggle”.
Erin’s dream manifested over the weekend. We watched the programme, she muttered “iggle piggle” constantly and shouted “wow” when we showed her the little blue man on the cbeebies website. The dream was clear and we new what we had to do.
Half an hour of iggle piggle in the evening was not enough. We needed our very own iggle piggle. There was only one thing for it…
We jumped in the car and headed to the place where all parents can go to make dreams happen. Toys R Us. Would it be too perfect for this story for there to have been only one lonely iggle piggle left, because that was exactly what stared at us as we hurried into the toy-super-warehouse. I grabbed iggle piggle and clutched him to my chest….I can do this dream-maker thing, I handed over my card and in return I got the last iggle piggle, now I know what it’s like to be a parent in that christmas eve dash looking for THE present…..THE only present that can make Christmas Day the truly magical event we strive for.
We returned home victorious and presented Erin with our trophy. Erin whooped and her little face lit up as I squeezed iggle’s belly and his theme tune rang out.
It’s pretty easy to see how children end up spoiled. The dream-making process is addictive, in an adrenalin junkie kind of way. I’ll need to make sure that one fix doesn’t lead to another and another and a bigger-nother!
9 Responses to “Parenting: Being a Dream-maker”
What a lovely story Little Mummy. It’s true that as a parent you have the power to make or dash all those little dreams. You’re right about the adrenalin junkie element. For the first couple of years of my eldest’s life he was allowed to have anything, but I soon realised that they were often my dreams too mixed in with his. During the first Christmas that he could vocalise his wishes for presents from Father Christmas. He started to give me a long list. At that point I said that Father Christmas could only meet one wish and asked him for his top two, so Father Christmas could pick. This has worked so far. However last year on the last day of posting b4 Christmas, he suddenly changed one of his wishes to a Pink Power Ranger, which he really really wanted. Given that his other top wish was a pair of pyjamas (he’s easily pleased), I relentlessly tried to track down a Pink PR. Local toy shops and Argos, Woolworths etc were all sold out. Thankfully after an internet search a phone call from Bury St Edmunds to Harry’s Dept Store in the Shetland Islands did the trick, with only an hour left to make last post. I kept my fingers crossed in desperation and thankfully it was delivered just in time - phew ;-D
Haha, I bet we all have our little dream-make stories, anyonelse want to share?
Fantastic, isn’t it, to be able to make them so happy. Great to see Erin enjoying Iggle Piggle so much. Meanie has a soft bear she loves very much and can’t go to sleep without. I didn’t give him to her, but it is my job to track him down when he goes missing (after being hurled from the cot) and to reunite them.
Oops! Typo there in earlier comment … I meant Beanie, not Meanie! Sure she wouldn’t thank me for getting that wrong.
Beanie’s favourite word is ‘no’. We’ve made up alternative lyrics to the Amy Winehouse hit “They tried to make me take a short nap, I said ‘no, no, no’, Tried to make me eat my veggies, I said ‘no, no, no’.”
Poor Beanie.
I like the alternative lyrics…pretty much sums it up really!
Thank you! I enjoyed that very much! In addition to the rush i get from providing my son with material things, power behind my words is just as thrilling. To be the one that can say a few words and make things all better is a power I dread losing.
thank you again!
Thanks for participating in this week’s Carnival of Family Life. It will be posted at midnight (PDT) at http://www.jhsiess.com!
Glad you enjoyed it Laurie, good point about the words too.