Voices

We had let our kids go out in the woods alone, and I was tracking their GPS on my phone, and could occasionally zoom in to look at what they were doing. At some point I noticed that my four year old had become a proficient swimmer. I knew he had it in him! I thought proudly. However, then the GPS signal of my four year old started to get confused and when I zoomed in a different kid would show. I could see my seven-year old climbing a tree, but that was not my younger son beside him. My husband said that it was ok, just a glitch, but I told him that I had a feeling of dread like something terrible had happened. We reached the woods, and found a group of kids tied loosely to a tree with some cable. They lay there as if in a stupor. I still had not found my son. I heard the voice of the evil man who had done this saying something over a loudspeaker. I do not remember all he said, but it included "it does not matter." I could somehow know that the tree cables or something there was boobytrapped so I could not free the kids. I also somehow knew the evil man could see me. I still also had not reached my older son yet, even though I had seen him on GPS phone video, had not lost him. I woke up from this nightmare after this, quite shaken. I had to look in on my sons, and found them safe asleep in bed of course. Despite risk of waking him up, I kissed my younger son on cheek - I would have kissed my older one, but he was harder to reach not being near the edge of the top bunk at the moment. In hindsight, even before my conscious self was aware of it that this would turn into a nightmare, the setting was clearly there. We are watching kids over GPS and phone while they are alone in the woods! They are engaging in potentially dangerous activities such as swimming unsupervised without lifeguard or lifejacket for my younger son and tree climbing on very high tree for my older son. It is interesting that the nightmare again goes to kidnapper theme. I thought I had successfully vanquished those kidnappers in my previous dream, where I felt so much empowerment due to having rescued my boys and preparing to fight bad guys using my superior martial arts skills. Well apparently they are back with a vengance and this time there is no empowerment for me. Of course, due to the GPS and leaving them alone in the woods, it is all my fault this time. Also i do not even get the relief of seeing my boys before the dream ends, making sure that they are alive and well in the dream. Fear of kidnappers in waking life is one of those cultural irrationally blown out of proportion fears: I know that in reality the odds of boys being kidnapped are miniscule, and I did not think that I really feared this in waking life that much to give me nightmares (perhaps it is not so much the likelihood as what would be worst case scenario - fear of kidnappers and boogieman), but of course I am as a good parent worried for my sons safety, and that of course is the because of these dreams.