Every night to settle my son into sleep we have a ritual,  that took perhaps two or three months to perfect, it is essential we follow this ritual otherwise he would find it very difficult to fall asleep.It started when one night he was having trouble sleeping so I told him, "why not dream about something that makes you happy"."Like what Dad "was his reply. So from that day I have to come up with a dream he can have and woe betide me if I repeat a dream. There then follows a whole speech I have to do, as follows:

You could dream about being a detective, you could dream about you and me , packing a suitcase, going to St Johns road , to catch a Taxi to the airport to get on a plane to go to Hollywood. You could dream about eating an Eiffel tower made out of french fries, or perhaps eating a Buckingham palace made out of chocolate, or perhaps even a Edinburgh castle made out of chocolate. You could dream about taking a trip to Disney land Paris , or Disney Land Florida ,or perhaps even Disney land California.You could dream about jumping off the moon on to your bed, you could dream about mummification, you could dream about making an advert. You could dream about eating an Empire State Building made out of oat cakes. Finally you could dream about taking a trip on an Ocean Liner that has three restaurants, two swimming pools , two cinemas, a theatre, a dance studio, a performing stage, a nail bar, a hairdressers, a Costas and a McDonalds.

I have recited this every night for about six years he never tires of it, some of it he suggested himself. Needless to say more often than not he falls into a deep untroubled sleep and I am so used to this routine that I fear I might have trouble sleeping if I did not complete it myself.

Off course when I share this with other parents they find it a little odd, certainly now he is in his twelfth year, but as far as I am concerned whatever it takes, for him and in turn me, to have a good nights sleep then it is worth the repetition. My only puzzlement is when will he decide that he no longer needs me to go through this routine? When is he going to start behaving like a young teenager, guarded of his space and time?  Bearing in mind that in six years he has missed this routine five times and each of these times I was not present. I ask the question, not expecting an answer like many things attached to my sons development, I know at the end ,the answer is not always what I expect.