Scared of Ghosts?

My 2y/o DD has recently become incredibly scared of ghosts. Several times a day she will come running up to me, cling on to me, and tell me that the Ghost was trying to get her. She is almost in tears, and you can tell that she is genuinely afraid! I talk her down, and after a few minutes she snaps out of it...until the next episode that is. I have no idea where she got this. How can I convince her that she does not need to be afraid of Ghosts, and they are not going to get her?

 

In our house we have a rule. Mommy's rule is (and always has been) No monsters allowed in the house.

Whenever one of my kids would bring up something like that I would ask "What is Mommy's rule?" and they would smile & repeat it. Worked for us.

You could also give her a tiny spray bottle(of water), a bell to ring, etc. All things that will put her in control of sending them off.

 

I like Callen's rule. :good: I'm going to have to steal that.

:hug: to your baby girl. Angie has gone through phases like that. Last one was around Halloween and it was from her watching TV shows. I just comfort her and let her know I'm here to protect her and I hope no more ghosts come to get her. :blush: Not the best idea.

 

We are having a similar problem, Emilie has been dreaming of a witch and says she sees a witch in her room. Before bed, I have been opening up her closet and having her look in there with me to see there is no witch, we look under her bed, in her drawers, behind her door, in with stuffed animals, etc. We look everywhere I can think of to let her know there is not a witch in her room. And I tell her that there is no way a witch can get in our house becuase they are not real, Mommy and Daddy would not let one in our house, and our doors are locked. It has worked okay, but she still has the dreams.


:hug: to your little girl and you, I know it's not easy.

 

We use our dogs as their protectors. Since we have dogs, there are no ghosts or monsters in our house.

 

I use it to my advantage and when they're naughty I tell them I'm taking them to the Clown's house. We've driven up in MANY a clown's driveways.. It works!

Mine are petrified of EVERYTHING! We couldn't even go trick or treating. We can't see Santa or even talk about him. They just say.. "Only a little santa, a little one, will come here!" And they show me how little he is cuz they're AFRAID of the "big" Santa!

LOL.

Mine have a love/hate relationship with scary things. They pretend to be monsters (walking like Frankenstein) and want to watch "scary clowns" on Youtube but they're TERRIFIED of them.

I just laugh.

I'm a horror movie junkie so I know they get this from me.

I'm not worried!

It shall pass!!

 

Do you think it's possible she's seeing them? I like the water bottle idea. . .some other things to consider:

Watch/read casper the friendly ghost.
No more GhostHunters!!

And I read somewhere that ghosts really don't like stuffed bunnies.

 

My nephew used to take a skipping rope downstairs as thats where the "ghost" lived so he could catch it :laughing: :laughing: it was cute :wub:

 

Piper has a lot of fears too. She doesn't know what ghosts are (yet), but I'm sure she'll be scared of them once she learns about them. So far she's been afraid of dinosaurs, alligators and coyotes and doesn't want them to come to her house. She also says "someone" is coming from time to time and gets really freaked out and can't stand with her back to the door or window. Her fears even scare me sometimes because we've never said there's anything to be afraid of, and certainly not that she should worry about people coming to our house.

That said, we have a bottle of spray that we periodically spray around the house - by the doors usually - that keeps whatever it is she's afraid of out. At first it was coyote spray, then dinosaur spray, etc. I'm hoping this is just a phase.

 

I guess I am not sure how it would be advantageous to get her to understand her fears are irrational by telling her I am taking her to see them and and have her be tortured by it. I don't think its funny to see her so scared and uncomfortable, especially in our own house.

Kaylyn is typically not scared of anything (and I mean nothing!), so for her to be acting like this, is definitely not the norm. I have no idea where she picked up ghosts from? We don't watch anything about Ghosts on TV. The only thing I can think of is maybe she saw/heard something around Halloween but even then it wouldn't have been a scary encounter.

Thank you for the good idea's, I will be giving those a whirl!

 

Mitchell comes running to my room some nights saying there is a ghost in his room and crying. It actually always freaks me out a little when he says this but I try to calm him down. I think I may take that water bottle idea as well. I don't like to feed into his fear either, then that shows him there really is something to be afraid of. Mitchell has said he sees them during the day too but not scary. One time he was sitting on his bed and I said something about my mom (who passed away 3 years ago) and how I wish she was here and he said "she is, she is sitting on Jack's bed right there"....TOTALLY freaked me out. So I never know what to say. So many people joke that kids have a sixth sense and I guess that always stuck with me so when he says he sees a ghost I tell him its my mom watching over him. I don't know if thats a good idea or not but I don't want him to be afraid but don't know what he "thinks" he is seeing either. I hope you find something that works, its so tough seeing them scared!

 

I think you have gotten lots of good ideas here. My girls are terrified of lots of things and it changes daily Currently it is Shrek. I just wanted to offer :hug: and say I hope its a phase.

 

I have one that is scared of things. She doesn't even like to watch alot of Disney movies because there is always a "bad guy." Rather than find it amusing or trying to instill even more fear by doing as you did above, I would rather comfort her and just accept that is who she is. I don't see how forcing a child to face such irrational fears at such a young age is at all advantageous. They are not old enough to rationalize them and all they are seeking is comfort and a safe place to be, in this case in their mother's arms. I would rather know that my little one finds comfort in my arms rather than fearing that I am going to somehow expose her to even more fear. I'm sorry but I just can not see how that ever works.

I do agree that it will pass. I just continue to hug her, tell her it is okay and that Mommy will not ever let a ghost get her. I just enjoy the hugs, since soon she is going to outgrow coming to her Mommy for things like that.

 

We went through this a little closer to 3 yrs. old. Their imaginations are going wild! I gave them their Tyke lights at that point to have in their beds. They go off on a timer!!!

I love the ideas of all the things that don't let the ghosts come in!!!

 

I'm not sure what your beliefs are, but here is what we do. Whenever they are scared or have a bad dream I'll sing "God is Bigger than the Boogie Man" from Veggie Tales to them and quote Psalm 4:8, "I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety." We also tell them that if they wake up scared they should pray and let God know they are scared and ask Him to take their fears away.

I also teach them that there is no such thing as ghosts (I really don't believe in them) or monsters and that these are all just make-believe. There is no reason to be afraid of imaginary things! Now, I can't say that they are never afraid. I think it is a natural stage of development when their imaginations really start working but they can't quite differentiate between what is real and what is make-believe. So, I comfort them and try to teach them the difference. I think that, even though it doesn't prevent the stage completely, it might help them get through it faster.

 

Mine were afraid for a long while, terrified! I couldn't figure out where it came from until one day I watched wonder pets with them and an episode was on where one of them thinks there shadow is a scary ghost.... Then I figured it out! Our problem was mainly at night (with all the shadows in there room), and since it was summer I told them the fan was there ghost go away fan, and it worked! Although NOW they have to sleep with a fan or heater on every night or they can not go to sleep!

 

Jon went through a little phase of this but I think he was a year or two older. Anyways we built a dreamcatcher like this and it was cool because we were able to all do it together and he still has it.

I know they aren't dreams that she's having but maybe knowing that it catches all bad things might help.. just a thought.

I love the other ideas as well! Especially mom's rule!

 

We haven't gone through this yet. I love these ideas. I will have to keep all of these in mind.

Kyrstyn~ I hope you find something that works (let us know if you do). I hate seeing them scared like that.....it just breaks my heart. :hug:

 

We have the monster thing going on here. We just tell them that we live in a safe house, no monsters allowed in here! My 15yr old started the crap about monsters telling the twins that a monster lives under the stairs UHG he just did not think!!!! luckily they really took to the safe house thing!

 

A&R think monsters are cool. :wub:

 

Jackson has been exhibiting a lot of fear lately, too. This has been going on since he turned 2 or so. It sounds like you are doing the best you possibly can to make her feel secure and help to allay her fears. :hug: It's so hard to know that our children are distressed.

 

:hug: We went through a similar fear here, too. I impulsively grabbed a bottle of body spray that smelled sweet, named it "Happy Spray" and had to spray each girl's bedspread and the bedroom door to keep them having happy dreams. It worked, was necessary for a couple of months, then I was finally even able to stop using the spray. Hang in there!!

 

Kyrstyn, we do the "Mommy don't allow ghosts in our house" as another pp mentioned. I also had read somewhere on here once before that when a child saw something scary, like a monster, the mommy would act like she caught it and throw it out the door. I really thought that was a good idea as well. Hopefully she'll grow out of it, but my son still hates scary stuff and he's 12. We just avoid scary shows and even scary, creepy stuff at all times.