Last night I dreamt something that I have never dreamt before (strangely enough Iv never dreamt of siblings, altough I would have liked to have had some.) I dreamt I got notice that my mother (Eva) had been rushed into hospital cause her “water had broke” i e she was having a baby. (My mother is over sixty years old in awake life).

I was not at all pleased about this and was very short with anyone who dared talk to me. I was at work and I was in a foul mood.

I entered a large classroom (I work as a University Lecturer in awake life) and it was filled with strangers, mostly old people. There were projectors showing old movies on the walls and in the middle there was a table with all kinds of paint and paper and scissors and drawing pads. People walked around and participated in different activities: watching films, playing with paint, looking at stands with information etc.

An elderly man in a suit was complaining loudly about some IT equipment that did not work and it all seemed very chaotic. I remember saying to my colleagues; “-But surely it’s not our problem if it’s badly organized? I mean, it’s not us who should be made responsible for this circus, is it?”

But it was our problem, apparently. It was our department who had invited the public to come visit the university on some kind of theme day. My colleagues were just standing around, not knowing what to do.

The invited members of the public suddenly started using the paint to paint on the walls and furniture like little children making havoc when the teacher leaves the classroom.

Although I surely had had nothing to do with the entire event, I jumped up on a table and started screaming at people; “This is it! You stop what ever you are doing this VERY instant. Do you think this pathetic little department can afford to repaint that f-king wall, once you have finished! Behave!” People went very quiet and I marched away from there, fuming with anger and with paint all over my white shirt.

I walked through the streets with cafés on both sides on the sidewalks and people sitting outside. I remember thinking that with paint on my shirt at least I looked artistic. I walked past my ex-boyfriend who lifted his head, stared at me and said hi. I walked past everyone. Behind me was some of my colleagues trying to keep up with me and trying to joke with me and make me laugh.

But I was still furious. Finally I said, “Well, I suppose that Eva (my mother) has given birth by now so I should get over to the hospital.” My colleague said that it would be hours yet, but I insisted. “She squeezed me out in less than half an hour, so I’m sure she’ll be done by now.” (which is true)

Then I remember thinking that it was really, really odd that I would no longer be an only child, and that it was strange that this would happen to me at the age of 35. “How can one go from not being an only CHILD at a time when one is already an ADULT?”

I would say that the prevailing sentiment of the dream was anger.

I guess it could be the obvious, that you wish you had a brother or sister and now it's obviously way too late for that to happen naturally. It is quite a complicated dream though.

I think movie projecters, cinema screen etc are nearly always connected with watching life stories, usually our own in dreams. In waking life pretty much everything we watch this way has to do with life stories, either real or made up - so it's very natural for or dreams to use the same symbol for the same thing.

This is an outrageous guess, but it could be that you've blamed your mother for all kinds of things for a long time (as most of us have), being an only child is one of the biggest, and that you're getting to an age were your subconscious is deciding that maybe you have to take reponsibility for your own life now and not blame your mother for absolutey everything? I mean obviously you aren't responsible for not having a brother or sister, which is reflected in you mother being pregnat motif, but some of the other stuff in your life, reflected in the IT motifs, is down to you after all - or at least it may as well be from now on.

Thank you for your thoughts, but I don't think I blame my mother for not having given me any brothers or sisters (she could not have more kids at the time - and later when she could, it was no longer a good idea). In fact, my mother and I always get on very well and always have done.

I have the feeling that the dream had nothing to do with my mother or about my direct family.

I sense that it could be about different ways of behaving and about role-taking at work or in relationships. Being an only child is not just something that forms you as a child - it stays with you and shapes your entire life. I feel the dream could either be saying that 1) it is possible to stop behaving as a typical only child once you are an adult OR that it means the opposite 2) no matter that some things change, an only child always remains "only" or more lonely a person than others and that is an absolute.

I am not sure, but at least I think the key to understanding this dream is somthing to do with how having siblings or being an only child influences the rest of your life. Good or bad, I don't know. I also think there could be other ingredients that plays tricks with my sleeping mind; like the fact that I am in love (on a distance) with a married man who has a wife named the same as my mother and that he is also a very "typical only child". I just don't know what it is I am so extremely angry about in the dream, although it could be letting out steam from everyday frustrations, maybe?

Yes it could be, definately. Dreams are often used to let off steam in all kinds of ways; sometimes by shouting at people, arguing with them, and even attacking and killing people on occasion. Wish fulfillment is also a common dream technique for letting off steam or reducing frustration.

I think writing about it here, in a diary or elswhere can be very helpful for working out the meanings in that it tells your brain that you're still not quite sure what the message is, but you do want to know, so it will hopefully try and make it clearer in future dreams.