Monsters - Georgetown,TX

Updated on September 08, 2014
C.W. asks from Stafford, VA
14 answers

My 3 year old grand daughter is going through the monster stage. At least I hope that is it. The monster spray works for a couple of hours, then she says the monster is back. Upon repeated questioning from her dad over time of where does the monster come from, she points to the wall next to her sisters room and every time points to the same place and says through the wall. She is scared to death of her room at night. She has a night light. She wakes up screaming at the top her lungs and either comes running to mom or huttles in the corner of her bed until mom gets there. Tears flowing. They have been in this apartment for 9 months now. This has been gong on for the last four months. Every night. Does anyone have ideas? They are just beside themselves. My grand dughter is exhausted from lack of sleep at night. She will get her pillow and sleep in the hall or the couch. The 18 month old sister wakes up screaming with tears if her monitor is turned on next to her bed. My daughter calls me almost in tears because she doesn't know what else to do. Please help if you have experienced this or know someone that has. Thanks.

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So What Happened?

Thank you for all the wonderful responses. I am telling my daughter all your suggestions. Only thing I didn't mention is this monster thing is NOT only at night. She sleeps with the over head light on many occasions. She gets up and turns it on. About two days after I wrote this, my daughter called and said the three year old woke my daughter and son in law up about 6:00am screaming at the top of her lungs. Rushing into her room she was on the bed shaking uncontrollably. Asking what was wrong she pointed and said she saw a stranger in the hall. Asking what they looked like, she pointed to mom. They asked if it was a person like mom and she said yes. They said it took two hours to calm her down. So getting tired of this getting worse, taking a chance, my daughter with the three year old by her side, went to the place where there seems to be a problem and had a firm talking to the wall and firmly asked that they quit scaring her child and to go away. The room has been rearranged too. It has been almost two weeks now and no monster talk.

Featured Answers

S.T.

answers from Washington DC on

well, i don't think there's one right answer to this.
because i do believe there are spirits of various orders, and that little ones can perceive them more easily than adults, i myself would undertake a thorough cleansing and banishing of the space. and inviting in a guardian. stuffed dragons worked very well as dwelling places for the guardians i invoked for my monster-sensitive nieces.
every night for 4 months is way too long to be expecting the child to deal with this. since the monster spray isn't working, and she's so clear about the location of the monster, i'd move her. if there's no way to switch up the bedrooms, i'd let her bunk down in a 'nest' in her parents' room for a while.
and i'd run it by the pediatrician. most kids experience the monster thing, but this is pretty long-lasting. it may NOT be anything physiological, but in this case i'd want to rule that out.
khairete
S.

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Z.B.

answers from Toledo on

Ever watch Veggie Tales? There's one called, "Where's God When I'm S-scared?" Junior watches a scary movie and can't sleep. Bob and Larry tell him a story and they all sing a song called "God is Bigger."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jd4qnxj7D0

It's really cute, and sometimes I sing it to my 5 year old if he gets scared at night.

3 moms found this helpful
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G.B.

answers from Oklahoma City on

I believe in spirits. I saw my dad's spirit at Adam-ondi-ahman after he passed away. It's a very pastoral area and peaceful. We'd walked down to the overlook and were on our way back to our car. We came around a sort of bend in the walkway and there he was, hunched on one foot with the knee of the other leg up, with his arms on it. He was just looking around at the people.

I also feel my MIL's spirit in her house when I'm quiet and still. I feel like she's sitting right beside me sometimes.

I also believe in blessing a new house and having it cleansed, as one mom put it. This can be a resource that your child will believe in even if you don't believe in it too.

The veil is thin for the younger kids and I believe they can see and feel things we are socialized to ignore and say they aren't real.

If there is something she's feeling or sensing then you will have to deal with it or start giving her a sleep aid.

3 moms found this helpful
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L.M.

answers from Boise on

Reading these responses, a memory came to me of what we did for our oldest daughter (around 3 at the time). I told her that at night time, all the monsters were awake and they go down to the neighborhood park (1 1/2 blocks away) to play. They loved being there at night because all the human kids were in bed asleep. We would sit on her bed and talk about how funny it would be to see all the monsters swinging, sliding and rolling down the hill! This comforted her by taking the scary away.

Anyway, I hope there's a suggestion in these responses that will help your granddaughter.

Best of luck.

L.

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O.O.

answers from Los Angeles on

Have you considered a cleansing of the apartment?

2 moms found this helpful

T.S.

answers from San Francisco on

Every night for four months? What does her pediatrician say?

1 mom found this helpful
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M.P.

answers from Raleigh on

When my kids said they were afraid of monsters, I just said "You're afraid of Elmo?!". They said "No." The I said "Well, Elmo and Cookie Monster are the only monsters I've ever known. And they are friendly! What makes you think monsters are scary??" They didn't know and that ended the monster talk. That and I got them a Spoka from Ikea. They can bring light into bed with them and that helped calm their fears.
However, my daughter (then 3) did see the "lady in the darkness" for while. And the "little boy with the tummy ache". That was pretty creepy- she could describe the lady and boy in great detail. I just went into her room with her and gave the lady and boy a firm talking to, and that seemed to help. Good luck. And know this phase will pass. Many parents go through this same thing.

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D.K.

answers from Pittsburgh on

We went with the friendly monster approach. Of course we have monsters in the house. They look after us when we are sleeping and watch the house when we are out. It is a stage. But since you can't make them go away, we opted to go with it. It worked really well. My son would refer to them as the guarders.

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K.C.

answers from Washington DC on

Honestly, we did 3 things ...

1. We went on vacation for a week to the beach. Away from home when the monster talk started, I told DS monsters couldn't swim so they couldn't follow us to the beach. When we got home, I told him we were gone so long, all the monsters left. It worked for a bit.

2. About that same time, we introduced Monsters, Inc. (the original) and would talk about how the monsters were silly and friendly and how they helped Boo get back home. Seeing them as silly made a HUGE difference.

3. Recently, there was a Caillou episode about the scratchy monster that reignited the monsters ... So I told him I sent all the monsters away to Caillou's house for Gilbert to play with. It's worked so far ...

(ETA: we're not far from you ... About 30 minutes down rt. 1 ... The beach was Chincoteague, so if your daughter and family are local here, a night or two there could maybe help. There's a Hampton Inn on the island.)

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A.M.

answers from Detroit on

Since this has been going on so long, the first thing I recommend is rearranging her room, maybe even with her bed against the spot she afraid of so she is no longer facing the spot. Definitley consider the effect of lighting in the room from monitors, night lights, street lights outside, the hall, anything that might be casting an odd glow or a shadow. My son used to see awful looking moving shadows in his room that we could not see because the shadows were caused by us when we were in his sister's room in front her air purifier. It took us forever to figure out what he was seeing.

Another thing to consider... is she taking any medication? When my daughter was 3, she took Claritin allergy med. and she started having more than bad dreams. It was more like night terrors. Thank ggodness my husband had had the same reaction when had taken it years ago and recognized it as the cause (after about a week). The night terrors stopped when we changed medications.

My best advice, though, is this. I was terrified of the dark as a kid all the way until about two months after after I got married! I had even lived alone in college for two years! Someone it took my husband being away in the Marine Corps on training for me to finally get over it.

So, I vowed that no child of mine would ever be forced to sleep alone in her room if she/he was truly too afraid to do it. Seriously, what is the point in forcing a child to be terrified? It made no difference for me. As in, it didn't make me get over it by making me tough it out. So when my kids occasionally go through phases where they are afraid (usually around that awful time of Halloween or after seeing something scary when the school shows them a stupid movie) I either lie down with them until they fall back asleep or I let them sleep in my room for even a few days until they get over their fear and sleep in their own room again.

And it has always worked. It always turns out it's just a short phase they needed help getting past.

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C.V.

answers from Columbia on

Teach her to politely ask the spirit/monster/ghost/whatever to "Please go away and let me sleep. I'm tired. Thank you!"

Also, consider moving the night light to another socket. If it's just shadows, it might help.

If that doesn't work out, I'm also supportive of a cleansing or prayer over the home. Ask your pastor or spiritual leader to come and pray over the home and ask the spirits in the dwelling to find their way into the hereafter. I don't fully understand why spirits stick around, but I know they do.

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E.T.

answers from Rochester on

Find the book Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley. It helped my son. He even dressed up like the green monster one Halloween.

T.S.

answers from Denver on

It really doesn't matter if this is a real spirit or an imagined one. She is young enough to let her imagination be just as helpful as it is scary. Support her in creating a solution that works for her rather than having the parents decide what would work.

They can support the little one in bringing in whatever she needs to get the monster to leave. She can bring in fairies, angels, a monster garbage truck, or anything that she relates to. Let her know that she is more powerful than the monster because she is in a body and the monster is just a spirit. Support her in being curious, rather than fearful, about this monster. Have her describe the monster in detail and maybe even ask the monster what it wants. Then she can tell the monster to leave or get her angels or other helpers to make it leave.

S.G.

answers from Grand Forks on

My kids each went through a stage when they were little and were afraid of monsters. We are all afraid of the unknown, so I decided to educate my boys about monsters so there would no longer be the fear of the unknown. We went to the library and got lots of books and dvd's and learned all about monsters. One dvd, "Eyewitness-Monster", was particularly good at explaining the origins of monsters in mythology, folklore and pop culture. I remember both of my boys watching and re-watching that video dozens of times. They became experts on monsters. I also used the same method when they began to fear bugs. It worked. Knowledge is power!

Is the nightlight casting a shadow on the wall?

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