E has always been a wonderful sleeper, for that we have been blessed. She slept through from a young age and also had a daytime nap. However, up until E was 11 weeks old she didn’t nap, I couldn’t understand why she would constantly cry and would only sleep if I took her for a walk. It had been a tough day and E kept crying so I put her in her cot, which she had never been in before, so I could go to the loo. I came out and all was quiet, panic set in but I found her fast asleep. It was from that day we discovered E liked to sleep in the dark.
This meant purchasing black out blinds to make sure no light got in, if it did she wouldn’t settle and wake very early. However things have recently changed, around three weeks ago the battle began of getting her to bed, first she would avoid bedtime and run off saying she wasn’t tired then a few days after that she asked if I would sit with her for a while when she was in bed, I really didn’t want this to become a habit. It was only a few days after that she requested that we leave the door open when she went to bed. I couldn’t get my head around this and I was really concerned that she wouldn’t settle, but thankfully I was wrong. That night I put her to bed with the door open and closed it when I went to bed however in the morning I was woken by her crying and saying why is the door closed, I want the door open.
I decided to have a chat with E during the day and to ask her what was wrong, it was then she started talking about monsters, I have no idea where she had got this from, something someone has said or something on TV, I really have no idea. I reassured her that monsters are not real to which she said yes they are. I asked her why she wanted her door open and she then told me it is because of the monster. She told me that there is a black monster at the end of the bed that tries to take her duvet off her and eat her feet. She was so descriptive it made me quite sad that all of this was so real for her.
I remember thinking there was a monster under my bed when I was around eight, maybe younger. I remember at bedtime jumping from the door onto bed so that it couldn’t get me, it was quite a distance to jump too. I can almost recall the the fear that I felt about a monster living under my bed.
I decided to do a little reading online to come across numerous articles that say at the age of 3-4 years old, a child’s imagination develops a lot and this is typically the age when toddlers can become afraid of the dark and because children are creatures of habit they become afraid of the unknown.
I had no idea how to deal with the situation, I didn’t want her to believe they were real. I read how people gave their children little spray bottles of water, monster repellent! My mum said about a nightlight that would scare the monster’s away, all good ideas but instead I just opted for telling her there are no monsters as they are not real. I have looked round the room with her and showed her there are none hiding anywhere.
Going to sleep with the door wide open has worked as she settles straight away after her story and when I go to bed I pull it too a little but still with a big gap so when she wakes she can see it isn’t closed. It has resulted in her waking earlier the 6.30am wake up calls are a killer but sometimes will sleep to 7.30, E did used to sleep till 8am when it was dark.
The other morning I was lying in bed after I was woken by her talking and I heard E talk to her teddy and saying see, my feet are still there. E hasn’t talked about the monster in her room since that morning but she still asks that the door is left open all night long. If it means she sleeps then it is the best option and I am sure one day things will change and she will want her door pulled too or closed again.
Do your children believe in monsters too? If so what did you do to help easy their fear?
