As a child, I vividly remember having nightmares, nothing out of the ordinary, but dreams that scared me enough to worry if they would come back every night. Although my bedroom was on the second floor of our house, it seemed to me that my parents were sitting downstairs, reading the evening papers, a mile away. And if my nightmare comes back tonight, will something happen to me? How will my parents listen to me? I hope I don’t have nightmares tonight. These were my thoughts when I was an 8 year old kid, mom used to tell me “you’re going to be fine, nothing’s going to happen to you”. Bedtime for me was always a worry time. I started feeling anxious the moment I got home from school. No one really understood how I felt about my bad dreams, but then what could they do?

Now in my late forties, I run my own business and have also been a foster parent for over 10 years. I have witnessed children from all walks of life, and all with different needs.

Each child deals with their trauma in different ways, some can lock their thoughts away for life, others express their feelings and thoughts quite freely. I can say from my experience as a foster caregiver that most of our children have experienced nightmares and night terrors and may become anxious at bedtime. Most kids grow out of them, but that’s not much comfort to them when they’re too young to understand this.

As a parent of children who suffered from night terrors, everything possible was done to reduce these episodes, reading before bed, no reading before bed, no television, no exciting games before bed. Some nights we thought our strategies were working only to find bad dreams coming back to others.

I stumbled upon a stall that supplied Irish fairy doors at a trade show I attended for my business. I was drawn to this booth because of the product concept and what the product could offer me as a foster parent and not because of my purpose for being there as a retailer. My ride home from the trade show was filled with thoughts about fairy doors and the power they can have in helping so many children, not only suffering from night terrors but also separated from their parents, the bereavement list it is endless.

So what is a fairy door? It is exactly that, a small door that a child places at home or in the garden and then waits for the fairy to arrive. Once the magic key has been left outside and the whole family has signed the Fairy Central agreement, we just wait for the key to disappear, this is the sign that your fairy has moved on.

Your child’s fairy will only come out when he is asleep and will help blow away any bad dream breezes he sees on the bedroom ceiling. If the dreams become intense and worrying for the child, the fairy will leave a note outside the door for her child to read, usually something like this.

“Well, I’ve been trying really hard to keep the nightmare breezes away, but they keep coming back. I think it’s time I called for help.” The story goes on to explain how her son’s fairy is going to go to Fairy Central for more help in keeping the breezes of bad dreams away.

Your child’s imagination will allow them to believe that their fairy understands that they are having nightmares. The fairy left a note to her son how else would they know they have nightmares. Someone they believe really knows what they’re going through and someone they can trust.

These fairy doors have helped children to overcome grief and all other issues and problems. Is your child being bullied at school? You may not be aware of this, but have they left a note and told their fairy? Is there a solution that can be passed to them through their fairy? The benefits of having a fairy door are endless.

In my role as a foster parent these doors will be invaluable in my home, their fairy possibly being the only thing our children can confine and rely on for help and guidance.

All you need to do is believe.