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Sunday, March 11, 2018

Mystery Dream Roll (or Nightmare Note?): 11 Kids & Counting 

Want to jot details before they are erased from my mind:
  1. I was hired to work for a family with 11 children. The mom was very pregnant w the 12th.
  2. The house was in the Poconos, I think, and had a sprawling white porch. The mountain views were breathtaking. Blue and snow-capped and soaring. Lots of windows to see them through.
  3. I didn't see any other houses around. Of course not. It was probably some kind of weird compound.
  4. Figgy came to live with me there, too. She was 13 or 14 in one part of the dream, and about 6 or 7 in another [referenced in #13].
  5. An exotic dark-haired young woman [maybe 30 years old?] who was expecting her first child also lived there. She was a caretaker for the kids, too. She was wearing a beautiful pink mohair sweater. [I know where this detail came from. Yesterday, I popped into Le Willow 83, the fashion boutique on North Willow Street in Montclair. I saw a delicious mohair sweater that was not in my size, too small, and that I could not afford now even at 50 percent off.] She played piano and the mom said she hoped I would get to hear it there sometime [if I was lucky].
  6. I have no clue about the father of the young woman's baby.
  7. The dad of the house was Amish, with a beard and eyeglasses.
  8. The details emerged gradually: I was supposed to work from 7 a.m. until 1 a.m. every day; no days off.
  9. I don't know what the pay was.
  10. Some of the children were adopted and/or had been foster children. Some had special needs. A couple had cocoa-colored skin. Some were teens. It was really hard for me to remember their names in the dream and now that I have been awake for an hour, I cannot remember any of them.
  11. The mom was telling me about her organic cotton maternity top, the buttery lotion she was massaging into her belly--and the work she expected of me.
  12. She and the other young expectant mom were talking about how they could feel their babies kicking.
  13. The dad was showing me how to run the dishwasher. (I guess an Amish family would not have a dishwasher, but he had Amish principles.) At first I thought I had to wash everything by hand. He was so organized that the little dishwasher soap packs were in baggies for the week.
  14. He prepared the meals. Some of the kids got lucky--randomly--with blueberries on their plates next to a scoop of oatmeal. Some got half a cracker sandwich [with cheese] next to the oats. There wasn't enough of everything to go around.
  15. It got weird(er) when the mom said I should be sure Figgy dressed appropriately. Oh, she picks out her own outfit every day, I said. She said I would have to check it each morning because nothing should be too close-fitting or revealing.
  16. On my first or second day, the mom and dad were heading out to shop, taking one little baby and leaving me with the other 10 + Figgy.
Let's just say I am very, very grateful that this was not my true life. I would love the mountain views but that is all. Coincidence that I had this dream on Punchy's 11th birthday? Now I see the connection....11 children....and a choice to raise children from the foster care system....in our case, a single child.....

Oh, and I just remembered, maybe I dreamt about this family burden because I am left unsupported by Dan this weekend to get ready for family bday pizza and cake at 5 p.m. today with a few guests, including Sis....he is under a big book writing deadline....has been logging a lot of hours in coffee shops writing....I'm under a big pots and pans [and essay] writing deadline.....but our house is a mess and guess who carved out time to do two loads of dishes and supervise two play dates yesterday? Me. I am angry and resentful. At the first play date, they begged me to do a "Chopped" competition and so I did it for the two of them. At the second, I turned my back to make the brownie base for the Baked Alexa and the partners in crime made a huge mess with slime, that gooey craze I hate. I made them clean it up, with #resistance, but I still had to help because it was horrendous. I am so grateful that my sitter, Elaine, is coming in an hour so I can go to monthly restorative yoga class. Figgy works all day Saturdays and Sundays so I can't rope her in.

Please note, though I used the term Nightmare Note, I honor the women who choose to have many children, like my mom's lifelong best friend, Elaine Bergamini, who had 9; my dear friend Anne's mom, who had 8; and Liz's mom. But this was not a happy-family kind of dream. 


2 comments:

  1. Wow, hard day followed by horrible nightmare. I’m so sorry, and hope the universal returns you a happy day and peaceful sleep! šŸ€❄️
    Liz

    ReplyDelete