My 3 1/2 year old grandson tells me that he sees monsters. He will be playing & look up and point to "monsters". He has had dreams during nap time at my house & will wake up crying about monsters. My daughter told me that the other night he woke up the entire house at 2:00am screaming about "monsters". He was terrified! No one at her house, or my house, watches scary movies, or tells scary stories. He told me about his dream the next day & I started asking him questions about it. The "monster" is big, red, has one eye & chases him. That is when he wakes up. No one can figure out where he got this. I explained that the monster wasn't real & couldn't hurt him. I then got a spray bottle with room freshner in it & told him it was monster spray. We sprayed the entire house singing "Monster, Monster go away". We sprayed around all the doors & windows so monsters couldn't get in. (My house smelled really nice.) I told him the next time he had a dream about the monster not to run. I told him that the monster was a big silly & just yell at him to "STOP & GO HOME". All of this has helped, but he still sees monsters sometimes. Has anyone else dealt with this? I have run out of ideas.
Thank you everyone!!! I know that he has never watched MONSTERS Inc. the movie. Neither my daughter or myself have it or have seen it. We also do not have Yo Gabba Gabba cartoon on our cable. I asked his dad & was told thst he never heard of it. I printed out pictures from the internet & showed them to my grandson. He pointed to MUNO the one eyed, red monster. WE talked about it & laughed at how silly & funny they all looked. That was days ago & he hasn't talked about monsters since. You guys are great!!!!!!!
sorry to say it sounds to me from the description of the monster that he either watched the movie MONSTERS INC. or saw commercials for the movie.
remind him that they are all pretend just like the toy teddy bear or the toy animals are pretend.
i like the monster spray concept.
good luck and take care. J.
I have not experienced a fear of monsters yet with my little one and hopefully I wont have to. She has watched the disney movie Monsters, Inc and her grandmothers house and she walks around saying is a very low, dwarn out, scarry voice (and a HUGE SMILEY GRIN) "MONSTERRRRRRRS!!!!"
Its really cute and I think, even though she is young still, she gets the concept that scary monsters are a joke
Has your grandson ever seen this movie?
@}~>~~
We went through the same thing with our son when he was about 2 1/2 - 3 years old. The spray bottle worked for us, very similar to your experience. I let him spray the room whenever he saw a monster and we did it every night before bed. We used special 'water' so it didn't leave a scent. (We have a stream beside our house where we got the water from).
It helped but didn't solve the issue. I also made a big deal of special 'no-monster' plants. I showed him which houseplants kept monsters away and let him pick out his very own for his room. That helped. Whenever he saw a monster in his room I reminded him that the no-monster plant was keeping them away.
We engaged him in all the steps so he would feel some ownership / power over the monsters.
We also spoke to his daycare provider and learned that the other kids were talking about monsters. So she helped to stir the kids away from talking about them when our son was around. (Not sure if he goes to daycare or is one of those lucky kids who gets to spend all his time with his grandmother) :-) I notice kids seem intrigued by monsters and probably are learning about their fear/flight feelings.
There are no scary movies - even the Cars movie scared our child. We watch really simple nice shows - Clifford, Curious George, Bob the Builder and absolutely no adult tv shows.
Our son is 3 1/2 now and we seem to be out of the monster phase but it was rough when we were going through it. It is heart-wrenching when they wake up trembling and screaming in the night. Hang in there, it will get better.
Grandma C......
Your story is refreshing..not to take it too lightly for your little one...but we Grandmothers know how to keep life's monsters at bay. we've had more experience in making them go away..as they ALWAYS do!
Hats off to you for seeing the importance in these precious days you have chosen to spend with your grandson.
If his memory is sharp...or even his sense of smell...he may someday recall when Grandma "sprayed the monsters away". Priceless moments.
As far as some ADVICE for you with this situation...we all know he saw this creature on TV..somewhere...and you weren't even paying attention to it. The "sweet "little programs that are on are sometimes deceiving for a young mind. My 3 1/2 year old granddaughter has made ME see that....making sounds or movements that TOTALLY threw me and my daughter off. Eventaully we saw it on the tube. And after time...the 'behavior' passed.
Keep that spray handy...you may have to bring it out when he's 21.
Blessing to you from Nana in Naples.
Wow...did I write this story or what??? My son is 2 1/2, I went through the same thing with him, he too described this as my son called it "scary me". It took me a while to figure out what it was, as there are no scary movies or scary stories being told anywhere my children are. I always watch TV with my two little ones, so I know what they are watching. But one day I went to pick him up from daycare and a show called Yo GABBA GABBA was on and there was the one eyed red "scary me". It is a kids show, but one that I chose not to allow my kids to watch because all of the characters are kinda scary. It flashes in their thoughts occassionally throughout the day and they dream about all their experiences so its there at night as well. I found myself comforting him alot and I read him the story David and Goliath.. you would be surprised at how well it is understood. He nows says "Jayden big and brave...no scary me" It's the cutest thing ever, but the fear is gone, that's most impressive. Good luck, and God bless....
My 3 year old daughter started the same thing about 6 months ago. I have been telling her that mommy doesn't allow monsters in the house and taught her to growl at them whe she sees them to scare them away. It's worked so far. She still has bad dreams sometimes and will come into my room in the middle of the night to sleep on the floor. But overall, she is slowly letting go of these imaginary monsters. I think this is just the blossoming of an active imagination.
Sounds like he described one of the characters from YoGabaGaba ~ does he watch that show? If so I would watch it with him and explain they are nice, just look different from us.
Great idea with the spray!!
What great ideas you had with the spray and telling them to go away. When I was reading you describe the monster, my first thought as well was YoGabbaGabba. There is a big orange one eyed monster thing on that show and it comes on Noggin...perhaps that's the monster. Good luck to you, i have no other advice for you but let us know how it turns out.
Quick- go to childrensbehaviorhelp.com- they have great help!
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It is funny you mention the spray - I did the same thing. My 5 year old still keeps a bottle of air freshner on his dresser! :-) There is a book that has 3 or 4 stories in it that I bought from Boarders (or something like that). The stories that I remember are: There's A Monster In My Closet & There's an Aligator Under My bed. It just shows the over active imagination and that it turns them into nice friendly images. It worked for my son at the time, but I was concerned at first. It seemed like it might scare him, but it didn't. I, like you, was willing to try anything and it helped.
Good luck!
If he ever saw Monsters Inc., a Disney film, there is a monster like that chasing a little girl. Even if it was a picture he saw of the movie. Who knows.It sounds like you are doing the right things.
