THE DREAM I am in a beach house with my family. Across the street is a breakfast diner. Two of my relatives are anxious to go eat breakfast and they leave to go eat. My husband is holding our baby and walks out of the house. I think that he's gone to the diner with my relatives. A small female child (who is no one I know, but in the dream she is a niece) asks me to take her outside and teach her to build a sandcastle like I promised. When we go outside, my sister (who nannies my infant daughter) is holding my baby. Another sister and my 11 year old niece are holding hands walking. Water is in the street between all of the houses. As we're walking to find a spot, the water is pushing us further up the street away from the ocean. Then big wave rushes past us. Ahead of us, a tidal wave starts rushing back. Holding this small female child, I move off to the side between some houses. I watch as my sister and daughter, and sister and niece are swept away. When the wave is gone, the child and I are safe. I find my sister and daughter, who are both safe. We see my other sister walking back towards us crying because my niece is missing. We walk towards this huge netted fence which marks the beginning of a hillside. Below is the water, with a bunch of sea weeds and muck. We see my brother and brother in law searching for my niece. We are calling frantically for her.

THE REALITY The dreamer had her first child just five months before and had returned to work just recently. She had been feeling very guilty the about leaving her child with her sister. The previous day she had a very stressful day at work and felt overwhelmed caused by other people.

THE INTERPRETATION Dreams are often very difficult to interpret. They often relate to recent events and feelings in our minds. But often we have more than one thing causing us stress the day before. So how should we interpret such dreams?

In the dream the dreamer is looking after her niece. In real life her sister is looking after her daughter. Her sisters relationship to the daughter is aunt - niece. Its the same relationship. So deep down the dream probably involves a thought such as "My sister loves my baby because she is related and so I am been silly. Nothing will happen to her". In the dream no harm comes to the baby. Harm seems to come to her niece who is been looked after by her mother. So really the dream is making the point that "If I looked after my child then bad things can still happen".

Dreams need not be about one thing. In real life we can be doing one thing and can be thinking about another. In real life the dreamer was stressed the day before. So the tidal wave probably linked to her difficult day at work. The stress about her niece in the dream maybe also linked to her problems at work. She was frantically trying to sort out someone else's problem. So really the dream could be viewed two ways. Maybe the dreamer is reflecting on how she put lots of effort in trying to sort out other peoples problems. We can never truly determine what a dream means. We can only put forward ideas.

Symbolic Meanings
NIECE: "her baby is looked after by her sister - its an identical relationship - sister and niece "
TIDAL WAVE: "The stress caused by work problems"

DREAM MEANING The dream captures the following feeling within the dreamer - "I constantly feel guilty about leaving my child with my sister. I should not worry. I love my niece and would do everything for her. My sister will do the same for my baby. I have also been stressed out by work yesterday"

See how the Symbolic Meanings above weave together to form a key insight in the DREAM MEANING