Nightmares, Bad Dreams and a pair of Scissors.

Sarah has been bunking in our bed for several nights now. Every night she'll beg and plead to sleep with me. Sometimes I would relent but other times I'd give her an adamant "No" and send her sniffling off to bed only to find her snuggled in between my legs in the middle of the night. Although I sleep in a king size bed; 2 adults, a toddler, an infant and one small child all together on the same bed is absolutely ridiculous! Every morning I seem to wake up feeling sore from the cramp space and this situation makes this aspiring supermom a super grumpy mom instead.
I've recently found out that Sarah and some friends have been swapping ghost stories that they've heard from the adults or movies they have seen and scaring the bejeebers out of each other. Apparently, without my knowledge, the Indonesian helper that I had hired during my first few months after birth was showing these children mini clips of 'The Exorcist' on her phone. If that Indon lady was still with me and had I known, I'd make sure to scare the bejeebers out of her!
I persistently told Sarah that there are no ghosts in Abu Dhabi because it is full of mosques. That sort of work for a little while until she started pleading to get into my bed again, this time it wasn't due to the fear of ghost but of bad, scary dreams instead.
I explained to Sarah that dreams are never real and it is only make believe. Sarah said she understands but the bad dreams keeps coming back.
So how do I keep the bad dreams away? Suddenly I remembered a malay old wives tale about putting a scissor or a piece a blade underneath the pillow to prevent bad dreams. I took hubby's nose scissors which was blunt, rounded and pretty safe due to its inability to poke through pillow case or any type of cloths for that matter. I told Sarah that this will keep her safe from bad dreams and if she puts this underneath her pillow every night and recite "Bismillahirahmanirahim" 21 times, Allah will keep her safe at night from ghosts or bad dreams. Miraciously, it worked!
Now, Sarah can't sleep without her scissors and reciting "Bismillah". When she came back from school the other day, she told me that one of her classmates was telling her that she had had a bad dream and Sarah suggested this little English girl to put a scissor underneath her pillow and recite "Bismillah". Sarah said her friend just looked at her oddly and said, "How wierd".
I guess I've to be ready with an explanation from now on in case little English, Swedish or Australian girl starts sleeping with scissors underneath their pillows. lol In the mean time, I think I'll let that little girl of mine climb into bed with me tonight...a bonus because this mommy is starting to miss her. :)