5/22/12
Dream Interpretation: My Boyfriend Ignores Our Baby Named “Forest Potato”

photo via Flickr

Other people’s dreams are never interesting…except when they’re about sex. Each week, our dream analyst Lauri Loewenberg tells one lucky reader what their dirty dream means. Got a dream you want Lauri to analyze? Click here to submit it) This week, a reader asks Lauri:

Just last night I dreamed that I had a baby girl by my boyfriend. He was in and out of the house, but never realized or acknowledged that we had a child. A few days later, he asks me, “What is the baby’s name?” I say, “Oh I let the baby go with my other daughter so she and her friends named the baby ‘Forest Potato.’ He said, “What kind of name is that?” The next thing I know the little baby girl is walking. He still ignores her but admits he does not like the fact that the baby is with my other kids. In real life, we are not intimate right now, plus he is in and out and getting ready to move in a few weeks. Can you tell me what this dream — and especially the name — represents? 

Lauri: When relationships hit rough spots, your dreams are always a good source of information and advice because they are a reflection of your deepest, most honest feelings. Unless you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant, babies in dreams are often connected to something new in your life. In your case, I think it may be the new life your relationship has taken on: no intimacy and apparently not much time together.  This may be why he didn’t recognize that you had a baby in the dream… because perhaps he does not seem to recognize that the relationship has taken on this new life.

Now, the name the baby was given is awfully interesting: Forest potato! As funny as that it, there is a meaning behind it and I will try to help you find what it is. But first it is important to know that naming something in a dream is the way the inner mind identifies an issue or a problem in waking life. Potatoes are common, basic sustenance so it may represent that which can nourish and sustain your relationship. A forest, to the dreaming mind is usually about something that is mysterious or causing you to feel lost. But it could also be a reference to the old saying, “You can’t see the forest for the trees,” in other words not seeing the big picture that’s right in front of you. Is there a lot of mystery surrounding the current state of your relationship? Are you not seeing what is plain as day or do you think he is not seeing the value in your relationship? I believe the fact that your daughter and her friends named the baby means that there is some childishness in the relationship.

But the most important part of the message — as always — comes at the end of the dream when the baby was suddenly walking and he still wouldn’t recognize her. I think that is the way your dream is showing you that — even in the future — things with him are not likely to change.  Also, walking could be the operative word here. Are you concerned he might be getting ready to walk out of the relationship? Let us know!

Got a dream you want Lauri to analyze? Click here to submit it. Anonymity guaranteed! Don’t forget: you can get access to Lauri’s Instant Dream Decoding Dictionary on her site. And check out Lauri’s new book Dream On It, available everywhere!