{"id":1348,"date":"2013-10-25T04:27:25","date_gmt":"2013-10-25T11:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/?p=1348"},"modified":"2013-10-25T04:28:25","modified_gmt":"2013-10-25T11:28:25","slug":"enannysource-com-insider-tips-for-slaying-your-childs-monster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/2013\/10\/25\/enannysource-com-insider-tips-for-slaying-your-childs-monster\/","title":{"rendered":"EnannySource.com Insider Tips for Slaying Your Child\u2019s Monster"},"content":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Michelle LaRowe<\/a>
\nEditor in Chief<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>From the fear of shadows to the belief that there\u2019s a real live monster living behind their bedroom closet door, it\u2019s not uncommon for children to share their bedtime concerns. In fact, around the age of three, when children\u2019s imaginations are really developing and nightmares can be frequent, it\u2019s not unusual for children to become terrified at bedtime. Bedtime is, after all, a scary place. It is dark, lonely and quiet.<\/p>\n

While it can be tempting to ignore a child\u2019s fears or brush them off as silly, don\u2019t. At this age, children need to feel heard and when you acknowledge your child\u2019s fears you\u2019re building confidence in your parent and child relationship and deepening your child\u2019s sense of trust. Instead of saying \u201cBig boys don\u2019t get scared,\u201d try \u201cYou know when I get scared, I think of happy things\u201d and share some of your childhood fears and how you persevered through them.<\/p>\n

You can also try to find out the root of the child\u2019s fear. Is it a creaking door that\u2019s setting off his monster radar or perhaps he watched something on television that seemed harmless at the time, but has taken on a life of its own once the lights went out. Ask open ended questions, like can you describe the monster?, to help get to the root or trigger of your child\u2019s fears.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve let your child know that you\u2019ve heard his fear and you\u2019ve tried to figure out the root of it, be his superhero and set off to slay his monster. While you certainly don\u2019t want to convey that monsters really do<\/em> exist in his room, you can certainly tell him the truth, that monsters are pretend and exist only in books and on television, you can also take steps to prove yourself true and show him that there\u2019s really nothing hiding under his bed.<\/p>\n

Since no tactic or trick will work for every child, all the time, you may have to try a few strategies before your child\u2019s monster is put to bed once and for all.<\/p>\n

Wondering how some of the folks at eNannySource deal with their children\u2019s fears? Check out these magnificent monster slaying tips below.<\/p>\n

We did two things \u2013 for one child, we put one of my shirts in her bed to help her to remember that I am there, and then with the other child we put a picture of mommy and daddy by the bed and told her if she got scared to look at the picture and remember that we love her.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ken Myers, President, eNannySource<\/strong><\/p>\n

If my kids have a bad dream I have them draw a picture of it and make it funny. For example, if there was a scary man, I have them draw the scary man with a great big clown nose or whatever they can to make it funny. If they don\u2019t want to draw we just talk about it and change the dream in some way to make it better. \u00a0What also works well are the stuffed animals with lights at the top that fill room with stars. Even my teenagers love them.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lorin Biederman, Operations Manager, eNannySource<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have used a book called The Moon in My Room. \u00a0It has a night light in it that the kids can push, but then it goes off after a few minutes.\u00a0I also used to go around and inspect the room with them before bedtime to make sure we looked in all the usual places for monsters before the lights went out.\u00a0You can also use the Tinkerbell approach and give them a remedy for Monsters. Remind them that \u201cjust like Tinkerbell needed you to believe in fairies to make her better, you can think about your favorite things – think about what they look like, how they smell, or feel – to fight the monster, if you think that there are any, and they will lose all of their power.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Rachel Lawrence, Placement Specialist, Morningside Nannies<\/strong><\/p>\n

And my best tip?<\/p>\n

Get out the monster spray. Fill a spray bottle with water and add a drop or two of a soothing essential oil, like lavender, for good measure. Create a \u201cno monsters\u201d label with your child, affix the label to the bottle and turn it to mist to spray those monsters away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Michelle LaRowe Editor in Chief From the fear of shadows to the belief that there\u2019s a real live monster living behind their bedroom closet door, it\u2019s not uncommon for children to share their bedtime concerns. In fact, around the age … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes","category-child-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1348"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1351,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions\/1351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}