Chasing Away The Scary Monsters
No monsters in the closet, just my reflection!
I blogged last week about the scary monsters that were terrifying Isaac at night, brought on by a harmless children’s book. Instead of banning all reading material in the house, I tried some other less extreme tactics.
Obviously I could not resist my son’s pitiful cries for help, even if they occurred at 3 a.m. I went in and cuddled him every time, but after a while I began to realize that now it was becoming a habit for Isaac to wake up and call for me instead of falling back asleep on his own. I think it was more about sneaking in some mommy-comfort than being worried about something under the bed at that point, and bless his little heart I ate it up… until it became a regular nightly, sometimes twice-nightly happening.
I began letting him fuss a little an kind of cry it out like I did back in the day when Isaac was an infant learning to sleep through the night. If there was any screaming I was in there in seconds, but whining I could ignore, and that helped somewhat but did not completely cure the problem.
We started talking about the monsters in the daytime, about how they are only pretend and if we ever think we see one we can always depend on our faithful stuffed animal friends to scare it away, so now every night my 27-month-old reminds his doggy woof woof and daisy dog to do their job. Also helpful was teaching him to say a little prayer for protection as well, although I’m not sure if Isaac really understood that concept.
Some progress, but I wanted the scary monsters gone for good, and Isaac’s big sister actually saved me on this one. She had won a prize at her school for good grades, and it was a light-up pumpkin with a bear popping out of the top. When you turned it on, the colors changed continuously and as soon as my boy saw it he wanted it.
Being the generous girl that she is, Marissa handed it over and told him it would keep the monsters away at night. Genius! Now it has become a night-light that sits on the dresser and gives off a soothing color show at bedtime. Not only does it absolutely keep the monsters away, but Isaac falls asleep in minutes with that thing on! Bonus!
I better stock up on those little batteries…
Do you use a night-light for your child(ren)? I wish I had thought of this before!
