A childhood belief about fairies

This is a very elaborate belief that my mother fed me for some reason. It started when I was about six or seven and went on until I was *twelve*, although by then, I was starting to have my doubts.

She claimed that between dinner and bedtime, two to six "dream fairies" would fly around our roof and that each one was a centimeter high, and that at night, they'd sprinkle fairy dust on me and if the dust was gold, I'd have magical dreams, if it was silver I'd have "sleepy-dreamy dreams" (?), and if it was rainbow-colored, I'd have adventurous dreams. She also claimed they could mix fairy dust together to have a combination of those themes, that nightmares were brought by a different set of creatures, and that the more surreal parts of my dreams were their doing.

However, there were a few drawbacks according to her: if I shouted, they'd fly away but might come back, and being kissed goodnight specifically by her or Dad helped them stay and if I was kissed goodnight enough times, they could stick around even if I didn't get a kiss one night. She also claimed that my cat plushie's job was looking for them.

She said that there were these other fairies who were hybrids of them and the Tooth Fairy called "tinkly tooth fairies" that cleaned people's teeth who had forgotten their toothbrushes.

My cousin also believed in dream fairies, although he thought that they poured "dream goo" in your ear and that's where *all* dreams came from. He also thought that if you drank "dream goo", it would taste like cherry-flavored rum and you'd pass out but then have only good dreams. (I never bought that).

The weirdest part was that my dad also said something about dream fairies and he's not even superstitious or anything.