Removing the “monsters” in your child’s room

The good news is…your kids are young.
Even better…..they pretty much believe anything you say if you say it convincingly!

The bad news?  There’s a monster in their room and they aren’t going to want to go to the room or get to sleep while it is occupying its imaginary space waiting to come out as soon as you (parents) leave.

There’s a rather simple fix to this considering the first two lines here:  They’re young; They believe you.

My daughter had a very vivid imagination as a child.  Actually, she still does!  However, due to her very active imagination, we did not let her watch scary shows or tell her scary stories.  This “monster” came to her room all on its own.  But that monster was a very real problem for us.  

Approaching this the right way is of great value.  Never tell them there is no monster.  They’re not going to believe you.  You don’t add a lot of credibility to your advice for them later on if they feel you aren’t really listening to them or believing them at these key times in their lives.  Think about something you found to be fearful yourself even as an adult.  Walking down a dark alley alone at night?  Fearful?  I think so.  Was someone waiting to jump you?  Maybe.  But all the same, someone telling you not to be afraid would not have changed the fact that you were afraid.

ALWAYS take them where they are and begin to elevate them to where you want them to be.  With children, accept the fact that they are scared, whether imaginary or not, and validate it.  Once they feel you believe them, they will listen to you for a solution.

My solution?  I bought a can of room deodorizer.  I tried to find an off brand that didn’t have the name plastered all over the front of it and it had a nice picture of pine trees and mountains on it.  Since she couldn’t read yet, I was on safe territory.  I asked her to tell me what she knew or saw about the monster, then I let her know that oddly enough, this spray worked on exactly those monsters!  It was called “Monster to the Mountains” spray and that wherever we sprayed it in her room, it would make the monsters there unable to stay and they would have to flee to the mountains.  It was the rule of the spray.  The monsters had no choice.

With spray can in hand (I told her it took an adult spraying it), I had her lead me around her room and point to the areas where the monsters would hide out.  A nice long spray in the closet, a sweeping spray under the bed….monsters were gone for the night! 

She slept undaunted that evening.

Do they come back?  Good question!  Of course not!  But others may find their way in should the spray residuals fade away.  It would take some time.  You can name the time.  They won’t know.  And you can even mark it on the calendar that you will spray that very day just in case some show up that haven’t appeared to them yet!

She still remembers that time when I came to her room, believed her and then took care of those things that would stay behind to scare her when I left.  If she asked, I let her know that various other mom’s had also tried this and it worked just fine and those same monsters never came back.