Scared of the "monster" in his room..

We spent last week back home visiting the family, we stayed with my sister-in-law.  Her 3.5 year old told me 3 year old that there was a monster in his room that would hurt him if he misbehaved.  So now my 3 year old is terrified to go to bed in his room. TERRIFIED.  We got home Saturday and he went to bed without any monster issues that night.  Every night since, he's been scared to go to bed, screaming and throwing tantrums, shaking with fear.  We walk around the room, open the curtains, show him there's no monster.  He goes to bed.  But he just wakes up screaming with fear and/or crawls into bed with us. 
 
We tried using a night light and leaving the bedroom door open, which we normally do anyway, with the hallway light on.
 
Any ideas on how to help him through this?  

 

We've had a lot of luck with talking about monsters/ghosts/vampires/zombies/etc as storybook creatures. They seem real because our imaginations are so strong but they're storybook creatures so we get to write the stories about them and decide how the stories end. Then we brainstorm ways for the story to end that are either with our kids strong and victorious or just something funny happening to the "bad guy". Emmett's favorite right now is ghosts that get blown up like balloons and float away.

I like this approach because it acknowledges that their fear is real (even if the cause of it isn't) and it gives them something concrete they can do on their own to manage and calm their fear.

 

We also talk about them not being real and they are only parts of movies and books. We did have to spray Hannah's room once or twice (her detangler conveniently had a monster pic on it)

 

I was also going to mention a spray... a friend of mine made a colorful "Monster Repellant" label and taped around a bottle of air freshener.  Sprayed before bed or as needed   Worked for her!  If you Google "monster spray," there are a few printable labels under "Images" you can use!!  Good luck!

 

We ended up just talking to him, like Rachel suggested, before bedtime.  Bedtime last night went pretty smoothly.  He woke up once during the night but settled back to bed (his own bed!) easily.  Hopefully this wasn't a fluke!  Fingers crossed!  I'll keep the monster spray in mind though!

 

We totally did Monster Spray and gave it to them to spray the monsters with.  It worked brilliantly.  It was a small spray bottle with febreeze with a pretty label. 

 

We did monster spray too... It was just water with a few drops of lavender oil. During the vampire phase, they also both slept with a bulb of garlic.

 

Oh my kids love vampires and zombies and other undeads.  How sweet your two wanted garlic to keep the vampires away.  :wub:

 

We ended up using some "monster spray" last night after he came downstairs crying.  We were in the shower so he just laid down in front of our bathroom door.  So we sprayed for monsters.  He came down twice more during the night because he was scared.  But hey, at least he wasn't screaming....

 

Are you letting him spray?  Because that might help too, giving him the tools to spray for them allows him to realize that it's up to him what happens with the monsters. 
 
On a good note, it was only about a month long for us, and that was a good smelling month. 

 

No, I sprayed.  I was thinking earlier today that I might let him try it if he wants.  I think last night he was just too scared to go over to that side of the room.  Maybe tonight we can do it as part of going to bed.  I gotta get a Monster sticker for the bottle!@!!

 

http://www.thehandmadehome.net/2012/08/diy-monster-spray-free-printable/
 
This little label is cute! 

 

I don't have a printer.    Well technically I do HAVE a printer..  it's just in a box somewhere.  Probably without ink. 

 

Hey, how about a projector night light? He can see planets or fishes or some of his fav characters on the ceiling! You can get one at walmart or target. Let him pick 1 out. Good luck! Poor little boy. My boy used to be scared of monsters. But now he knows he only sees them in dreams only lol. So not scared anymore