Parental Quandary: A Child's Bad Dreams "When I tuck my 4-year-old son into bed every night," W. writes, "I repeat the same thing my mother always said to me at bedtime, "Happy dreams." " But W."s son doesn't have happy dreams, and that, W. writes, is his quandary: not only does his son have bad dreams, but the dreams seem to have inspired by W.: His nightmares go from the classic, dreams about falling, to the heartbreaking, dreams about being hit by a truck. His surreal dreamscapes really freak me out, "There is a scary puddle with a face that turns into a monster," and "A monster swallowed a balloon." When I ask why this is scary, he tells me, "Because the monster is choking." That was W."s cue to start wondering if the biggest monsters in his son's nightmares were ... his parents. Because, W. says, those anxieties are straight from his playbook: Don't climb up there, you'll fall! Do not step in the street! You better not run through that puddle! Do not leave balloons on the ground; your baby sister could choke to death! The little boy's nightmares don't seem to be affecting his sleep: he goes to bed happily, and sleeps through the night - dreaming of the dangers that lurk at every turn. "Should I," W. asks, "be concerned my anxieties seem to be the inspiration for his bad dreams?" I know, everyone is going to want to tell W. to stop hovering over his boy. But aren't those lines everyone uses on our children, at one point or another? I know I've been pretty graphic in my descriptions of the fate that awaited the child of mine who darted out into parking lots again and again. But we all want our children to have sweet dreams. Any ideas for W.?