26 mos and scared of monsters?!

Re: 26 mos and scared of monsters?!

• rjeller32 member

  July 2013

  Totally normal. 1-2 years is the age range when they start getting nightmares (separate from night terrors).

  It could be dreams, or movies you watch, things he observes...really anything.

  My LO is a huge pansy, and everything scares her. For months now I've been dealing with "spookies" as they are  called in our house. I have to check her closet, under her bed, in her doll house, and finish off with sprinkling "anti-spooky dust". Then, she is terrified there are bugs in her room.

  I definitely think Stars Wars could be scary for a little kid. This is coming from a woman who at one point in her childhood stopped taking showers after watching Jurassic Park because I was dead set that it was indeed a T-Rex spitting on my head. Ha. I was like 9.
  

  
   
  

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• wilabeth member

  July 2013

  We watched Monsters Inc to show DS that monsters are "silly." We say things like that "silly monster" or talk about how funny cookie monster is. It seems to ease up his fears.

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• Cherryblossoms07 member

  July 2013

  I think it is normal and he probably picked up the idea from somewhere.  My kids haven't had any issues with monsters, bad people, ghosts, etc.  However, my nephew is scared of ghosts.  He heard people talk about them once and now he is so scared of them he will not go upstairs in his playroom alone. 
  

  

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• fancynewbeesly member

  July 2013

  My daughter seems to have a love/hate relationship with monsters. She thinks they are scary--and goes "scary monster" or "scared" but she LOVES watching them on TV---and seems proud that she isn't scared. She was hiding by the couch when Monsters vs. Aliens was on, but wouldn't let grandma change the channel either.

    

  My daughter is my hero.

  
  

  Reese Madison Updates

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• rlyttle member

  July 2013

  Has he watched Monsters Inc or Monstrs U? I would let DS watch those movies and tell him that monsters are nice and good monsters. DS likes monsters because of those movies. 

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• virginiagirl11 member

  July 2013

  DS has a book called, "I Love You, Stinky Face" that has a few monsters in it...a swamp monster, a cyclops, etc. We used that to introduce him to monsters and we made them seem silly (the cyclops holds a teddy bear and wears pajamas when he sleeps so it's endearing). It seemed to do the trick.

  Actually, DH was picking DS up from daycare one day and DS was in the lobby playing for a few minutes with one of the center's toys next to another little boy who was a little older (DS was 1.5) than him. The boy's father came over and said it was time to go. The little boy resisted, so his father said to him very seriously, "Do you see how empty it is here? Everyone's gone home because the monsters are coming. We need to get out of here before the monsters get here." The poor boy looked absolutely terrified and immediately got up and left. What a jerky dad.

  Anyway, yes, Star Wars is probably too scary for young toddlers. One of the boys in DS's daycare class saw it the other day and came in talking about how scary it was. 

  natural m/c 7.1.10 : sticky baby 4.25.11 : #2 due 5.18.13

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• momofmanyinthemitten member

  July 2013

  We taught DD to "zap" monsters away using her index finer like a magic wand, yelling zap. There was no convincing her that there are no monsters, worms, or alligators in our house, so we just gave her a tool to cope.
  

  
  

   
  
  

  

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• RedZee member

  July 2013

  My DD (2.5) also has a love/hate relationship with monsters. She loves pretending she's a monster, loves monster books (That's Not My Monster is one of her favorites), loves the Sesame Street monsters, has no problem when she sees any depiction of a monster. However, at night she is suddenly scared of them. At bedtime it's definitely bedtime procrastination. But she occasionally wakes up terrified and says she saw a monster.

  At bedtime, I usually tell her that all the monsters are going home with their mommies to go to sleep and then say "whooooosh" and wave my arm around to make them go away. In the middle of the night I just tell the monster to go home and do the whoosh thing. My mom gave my nephew a spray bottle of water and told him it was monster spray that he could use if he saw one. That helped him.

  I try not to tell her that there aren't any monsters, just because I want to validate whatever she's seeing/feeling. I don't know if that will work in the long run, but it's what I'm doing for now.
  

       
  

  
  
  

  DD1: born 1/19/11. DD2: born 10/10/13
  

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