Dealing with the "Monsters" in His Bedroom.

This may sound silly but we went to the store and bought a bottle of "monster spray". It was really window cleaner that I emptied out and put water in. The lady at the store played along with us and said this will keep all monsters away. We sprayed the house with our monster spray. My son keeps it in his room at night and if he thinks he sees a monster he sprays the monster and it disappears. I also have created good monsters in our house. We have tickle monster and pinch your butt monster that makes my son laugh. Sometimes he hears a noise at night and I just explain to him that the tickle monster had to go potty or something silly like that and he goes right back to sleep. The good monsters are fun and help keep out the bad monsters too. Sounds silly but it has worked for my 4 year old. Just remember that in a little ones mind monsters are real. Good Luck!!!!

A "Professional Monster Exterinator or Superhero" can come in the house to rid it of ALL monsters. He/She might look similar to a fireman with badges and all. May even use a spray bottle type "equipment" with "special monster spray" (water). Your 5 year old can help out by showing this "PMSH" where the monsters like to hide. This person must be offical and address you first and ask who has seen the monsters, where they are, making sure to note in an offical notebook and have you sign for the transation/service for an offical transaction record. Also a certificate showing that the ENTIRE house has been exterminated for Monsters helps to hang proudly on the wall in his room or the Frig. It may help with the nightmares too. Good luck!

My kids were a little younger when they went through that phase, but yes, I do have a couple of tricks.

1. Monster spray (water in a spray bottle) or Monster wand - to make a ritual out of clearing the room of monsters before bed.

2. Monster spells - recite along with good-night kisses, repeat as needed:

"Abracadabra, abracazay
All monsters must stay away
Poof!

Abracadabra, alakazeem
[child's name] will have happy dreams
Poof!"

K.,

When my daughter was about the same age she complained that there was a man in her room. She never beleived in monsters but it was the same thing. We did it all to get rid of the man. It never truly seemed to work. Years later after we had moved and were getting ready to move again her and i were in the basement. I had a childs coat rack down there that was in her room years before. I asked her if she wanted to keep it since it was part of her childhood and made just for her. She said no, that the coat rack is what she always thought was the man in her room. So my advise is to check your sons room form his point of view (lay in his bed as he would at bed time) and see if there is anything that could look scary. It may be as simple as that.

My daughter also probably used it as a stall tactic however after spritzing one or two spritzes of a "scary room" spray and saying....."all right all you scary things, get out of XXXX's room, get out of XXXX's house, get our of XXX(your town) and GO AWAY!!! Worked like a charm until she figured out some other way to get us back in her room!! You could keep it on his nightstand in case he thinks he needs it again. Good luck!

We tried a few things and I'm not sure which one exactly did the trick but here goes...

1. We got a TON of monster books at the library and read them over and over. Most had a lot of humor in them.
2. A friend helped put my son to bed and did this elaborate monster shield around his bed. Lots of sound effects and drama to go along with it. I was able to repeat it as needed.
3. We drew pictures of monsters and let him do what he wanted with them (e.g. rip it up, cross lines through it, throw in garbage).
4. We turned off all the lights in the basement and ran around with flashlights looking for monsters in the toilet,under the bed, couch, etc. (husband was in charge of this one).

My son was a bit younger when this started (2 1/2) but I do believe he was having bad dreams at the time because he would wake up suddenly and be crying or very upset and talking about monsters if he was awake enough. He also used it as a stall tactic for bedtime but he really seemed to be reluctant to go to sleep because of the dreams.

He's fine now (just turned 3) and has not been having bad dreams or talking about monsters anymore. Good luck with whatever else you try. I took it pretty seriously because I want him to feel safe and be able to talk about things that are bothering him.

athough I did not have this with my kids I also heard of the monster spray in a water bottle

We read Big Green Monster and it works so well, it takes the big green monster apart and the ending is Go Away Big Green monster and dont come back until I say and my girls love it!