[Sara Noel]

Ok, I am so not ready for this.
Zachary just came to me and said there are monsters in the house. I don't know where this came from and I just said no there aren't any monsters here. He insisted that there are and when I asked him why he said Nicole said there are monsters in the house. Nicole being a classmate. Now he could just be making that part up, but should I just let it go now? Or should I make it an effort to squash the monsters?
I hope this doesn't become a big thing with nightmares and daily thinking monsters are in his closet or under his bed or in the basement.
How did you handle "monsters"?

 

[captclearance]

When my Sisiter's kids were small there was no convincing them they were not in the house..... She used monster spray

 

[homesteadmamma]

Our ds#1 used to say there were monsters in the house has well. He called them "no see ums" when we would ask him where. He would wake up in the night calling us.

We decided not to make an issue of it and told him as long as Jesus was in his room, there would be no monsters. It was only a few days of confirming to him that yes Jesus was there watching out for him, that he no longer had "no see ums". When dh would pray before bedtime, he always prayed that Jesus would protect him.

It frightened us at first as well but we didn't make a big issue of it. I learnt a long time ago that with our kids, you can't make an issue of it because if you do, it will become a HUGE issue with them.

Like Zachary, someone had told ds#1 there were monsters everywhere!!!

For us, it was one of the easier issues we had to deal with. Hopefully it will be for Zachary and your family as well.

 

[heavensent_7]

I don't really have any advice as only one of my kids saw 'monsters' and he really did!!! His temperture used to rise WAY up when he was ill and he would halucinate

However IF I did have to deal with it, I agree with C.J. ~ the more of an issue you make it, the more of an issue it will be. I have found that with other things in the kids life.

Good Luck ~ I'll be thinking about you.

 

[gemmbp]

We used the monster spray(ours was a spray bottle of water,with just a little scent they liked mixed in) we made a special label "Monster Be Gone" It has worked every time!

 

[paelthom]

When dd was small we went thru the monster stage. We used to pray them away. We would pray that God would surround her with angels and the monsters couldn't be in the same place as the angels. She went to sleep after a bit and eventually the monster idea went completely away. Good luck with Zachary.

pat

 

[Milhos]

We went and bought three of the ugliest stuffed animals we could find. One went under the bed to scare them away from there, one in the closet so they wouldn't go in there and the other in the hallway outside the bedrooms so the monsters would be too scared to come near us.

 

[Mom23boys]

That is a neat idea Milissa. I never thought of scaring the monsters away. I know when the boys were younger they made me block the closet door so the "monster" wouldn't come out. I always had to put a chair or bean bag in front of the door at night.

 

[mylittle4]

We use dream pillows with chamomile and lavender they seem to comfort the kids.

 

[mommy2three]

wow...great ideas. mason always thinks that thunder is monsters too.

 

[Miss Kitty]

Dd and I made a monster trap; a shoe box with goldfish crackers in it, propped the lid at one end with a stick. It would fall when the monster went in after the crackers and trap him. After a few nights of the lid not falling, she said I guess you were right there really are no monsters. That was the end of it.

 

[Missy]

monster spray keeps the mean old mosters away here!

I use one of those spray misting bottles from cosmetics and hygiene sections of stores. I put in water and a drop of food coloring. (green is especially effective at keeping away the monsters )

****edited to add**** i used just a drop or so of food coloring for a large amount of water then pour the water into the spray bottle. It is a waste of water it seems, but i pour the water that i don't use for the monster spray into my garden and the food color hasn't hurt my plants yet, and i would have watered the plants outside anyhow. The water in ds's spray bottle is barely tinted, but it is enough so that he sees it is his special colored monster spray.

 

[milach]

Ds went through that when he saw Monsters Inc. It took me a while to figure out where he was getting the idea there were monsters under his bed, closet etc, since he was watching it at the sitters, and I hadn't seen it.

Whenever he came out after we put him to bed, we would go in his room, turn on the lights and show him there are no monsters, or we would go in there, make a bunch of noise to scare the monsters away. After a couple weeks, he stopped the monster thing.

 

[qponfanatic]

We prayed with our kids and told them that Jesus would always be there to protect them. it worked!:angel:

 

[Phaedrae]

Sara,

Aj started doing this shortly after he started daycare... We humored him and asked him to show us where the monsters hid and made a big show of kicking their butts and tossing them out the door. It made him laugh and now he goes around beating up his own "monsters". He'll even go and clear my bedroom before I can go in if we are home alone...

Our home currently has "bad guys" which Aj has his power sword (just something my sister picked up at the $1 store that makes this clinking sound when you push a button on)..that he uses to make them go away....HIs favorite saying now "I've got to kick the bad guys butts"...


Oh yeah and sometimes with the bad guys he is Spiderman and he poses and shoots web goo at them...*L*

 

[graci42]

When my dd was four she was convinced that a monster lived in her closet. Nothing I tried would convince her otherwise.

After a week of bedtime heeby jeebies, I had a light bulb moment. I wrote her a story about a lonely closet monster named Ekleheart. Soon she wouldn't go to sleep without the story being read (I still have the story tucked away..lol).

When my niece gave my sis the same problem, I passed the story on to her...Laura and Rachelle (pronounced Racheal) added to the story...Ekleheart now had a magic bed to travel the world on...hehehehe.

The moral...Make the monster into a friend and fear is no longer a problem. It worked for us.