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Nightmouse and other natural phenomena

My older son lets his imagination loose at bedtime and often calls us back in to tell us what he has seen or heard in the dark. Once he said he heard rustling on his bedframe, and I said it was probably just a mouse. ‘A MOUSE??’ he went, so I hastily came up with, ‘yes – the dream mouse, bringing you nice dreams’.

I said this in Finnish and meant it to be a nice thing, but something got lost in translation, and now both boys are terrified of Nightmouse. Even the little one makes a scared face and whispers, ‘Ny’mousse!’ Nightmouse is a rude sort of rodent, talking back when my son tells him to keep walking, as per my advice.

On the weekend we went to Battersea Park Children’s Zoo and came out of the giftshop with two stuffed snakes. After the boys went to bed that night clutching their scaly friends, I went into their room and realised that one of them was close to having a snake coiled around their neck, so I removed both snakes as hazardous. All hell broke loose last night when I refused to let them take their brand-new soft toys to bed with them. We brought that one on ourselves, to be fair.


I don’t seriously think I have Seasonal Affective Disorder (do I even seriously think anyone has it? Undecided), but the darkness does get me down. Only three months until the solstice. 🤞🏻

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