Thank you For My Dreams, boiler plate gratitude for kids and families

Look them in the eyes please. Our kids do not like it when we say that to them, but they need to hear it. It’s what they should do when they speak to someone or when they say thank you. Aside from being an outstanding Oingo Boingo song, gratitude is something that can be difficult to express, either because we’re not used to saying it or think that the occasion may not really merit it. Thank You For My Dreams is by HSH Prince Alexi Lubomirski and the book began as a simple way for his young boys to say, surprise, thank you.

The young one had a nightmare and Lubomirski was calming him by reminding him to say ‘thank you’ for the things that he was thankful for. There’s their dog, cookies, family and many more things. Within a couple of minutes he was asleep again, but the list of things that the elder Lubomirski was thankful for kept growing. From that list a book was born so that they-and everyone else would never be at a loss for a list of things to thankful for.

The book is presented in contrasting two or three colors on each page with it being broken down into morning, day and night. There are some sight words that younger readers will be able to navigate on their own. What each page and its listed ‘thank you’ has in common is that they’re short and easily digestible.

It’s a way of letting younger readers know that it’s OK and that everyone has these feelings or thoughts. Sure it mentions thanking ‘you’ for warm clothes, music and other physical things. What resonate more with younger readers are those vague aspects of life, such as laughter, frustration, dreams and wonder that kids might not realize that they need to navigate.

Our 7YO is like that. He is the only one who gets frustrated in school. He is convinced of this. Of course, adults know that he’s just one of hundreds of thousands of kids that get frustrated in school, but to him, he’s the only one. Thank you for the emotions that allow us to realize when we’re frustrated.

Thank You For My Dreams is a feel-good book that defies sarcasm or ill will. Sure, you may think of a pop song or two with those words in its chorus or lyrics. However, after skimming through a couple of pages in the book you’ll be charmed by sublime or rarely thanked things that you’ll be thinking of tonight. To make this book even more appealing, all of the proceeds from its sales go to a humanitarian charity called Concern Worldwide.