Things that go bump in the night
Posted on October 27, 2009 by FoBaM-Jamie
Do you remember what it felt like to believe with all your heart that there was a monster under your bed? When I was young, I took many precautions to ensure my nighttime safety. Instead of “crawling” into bed at the end of the day, I launched myself from clear across the room, leaping into the air a good four feet from the edge of my bed – hopefully far enough that no monster could reach out and grab my ankle. I never went to bed without calling out to my parents, “See you tomorrow!” and waiting for their sometimes exasperated, but mostly bemused response assuring that they would, in fact, see me. And, of course, I always slept well tucked-in … no toes hanging out in the breeze for passing ghoulies to tickle.
My own daughter is remarkably brave when it comes to things that would have given me nightmares when I was twice her age. Though she’s not quite six, she has few issues with movies that I consider potentially traumatizing – things like Disney’s Hocus Pocus or Twitched. I was uncertain of taking her to see the movie version of Where the Wild Things Are, but had nothing to fear as she took it all in with more curiosity than anxiety.
She does have, however, a completely irrational (though very common) fear of clowns. She’s also not crazy about spiders – which is weird because she’s fascinated by nearly every other type of creepy-crawly. She is also obsessed with burglars (which I learned is a fairly common fear at her age.)
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Image Credit: Dustin Diaz
My daughter had this hangup about monsters under the bed. So I took a spray bottle and filled it with water and crawled under there, and told her that I had monster killer. I sprayed her floor with water and she has been fine ever since!!!
Oh, and Jamie Lee … I’m 24 years old and am still petrafied of clowns and spiders
I share your daughters fear!!! lol
@Crystal – LOL … honestly, I’m not too keen on spiders or clowns myself! Maybe it’s hereditary!
When I was a small child, my babysitter had me watch “Gremlins”, and afterward I just knew that there was one under my bed. However, the most traumatic thing I remember is “Large Marge” from “PeeWee Herman’s Big Adventure”. After seeing her face in the famous scene, I could never watch that scene again (I fast-forwarded through it), and I was convinced that she was waiting at the end of a long dark hallway at my grandparents’ house, which I had to walk down to get to my bedroom, so I always counted to 3 and ran as fast as I could down the hallway to the bedroom!
This one was a little tough to pick only one. I have 2 children and they both have a fear of the dark along with the fear of something being in their rooms. They are not allowed to watch scary movies of any sort because then they start thinking that one of the characters are in their room. Night lights are a must in my house all the way through plus the kitchen light off of their room. What we do as mom’s to make our babies feel secure : )
Crystal,
That is a VERY good idea about the spray bottle. My son has bad dreams so my daughter and I made him a “bad” dream catcher. It hangs right by his bed. We shake it out usually on the weekends to get rid of the bad dreams. It seems to work most of the time.
is my child the only one still afraid of strangers? he will dig his little claws into me and hold on for dear life and/or cry just from looking at a new person’s face!
My son recently developed a fear of shadows? Who knows we try to tell him they are good shadows and show him ours and how they move around. Hopefully he’ll be over it soon because he doesn’t want to go in the bathroom to go potty by himself because he’s scared of the shadows in mommy’s room.
Have you tried getting a flashlight and doing a shadow puppet show, getting your son involved? This worked for my 5 year old (then 3) – doing a shadow show is now one of his favorite things, whether it be with a flashlight or with his shadow in the sunlight.
I show him my shadows on the wall and tell him goodnight and that i love him and he says goodnight mommy’s shadow and i love you too and that usually helps. Also he likes superheros a lot so I tell him that they are superman, batman shadows etc. and that they are here to protect him at night in his room. It’s just the going potty thing that we haven’t really been able to fix because its in the middle of the day. He doesn’t even want to go in there by himself in the middle of the day with the curtains open in my room.
I know this might sound crazy, but my son is scared of the sound of rain. First it started off with thunder and lightning. He is deathly afraid of both. Its mostly when he is in bed asleep. He freaks out so bad, he screams his head off like he is being murdered. He scared us so bad the first few times, that we flew out of bed pulling each other back trying to get to him first cause we thought he was being hurt. Poor kid.. Now, he freaks out at the sound of the rain. I am kind of concerned with it, but not sure what else I can do for him but tell him he will be OK. He is 4 yrs old. I feel real bad, but at the same time, wish he would get over it already.
Amber,
My daughter has similar issues. I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know if your son has the same problem as my child does, but I would reccomend getting a referrel from your pediatrician for him to be evaluated by an occupational therapist for “sensory intergration dysfunction”. It’s more common than you think & everyone has different issues with it. It’s treatable, without meds.
If you google, Sensory Intergration Dysfunction or pick up “The Out of Sync Child” book at your local library, it will help you get started to help him. There are many things you can do at home.
Hope that helps.
My 2.5 year old son is afraid of a “really really loud noise!” in whatever room he was just in. Even when there is no really really loud noise. Occasionally, the really really loud noise will be trying to get him, and he’ll have to run away from it.
Of course, there’s also the “really big octopus” who is usually nice but occasionally tries to get him (he’s yellow, but has no name), and there are “dinosaurs in mommydaddy’s bedroom” trying to eat his cheese
.
My daughter, now 4 1/2, all of a sudden has a fear of monsters in her room. After three nights of many nightmares, I bought two bottles of room freshener and labeled each one “monster spray” and “fairy spray”. I told her that the monster spray will keep the monsters out of her dreams (because monsters aren’t real anyway) and the fairy spray will encourage fairies to stay with her and keep her safe. Wow, did it work. No nightmares in a week – as long as we spray her room each night
Whenever my son has a bad dream we tell him to c all our do into his dream and chase the scary thing away. It works! He said our dog scares away the bad creature, usually a gorilla or an aliigator.
Every think that kids’ souls are so much Closer toGod that they can see things that adults can not. It’s possible that there are things that might be really scaring them that as an adult we couldnt see.
i agree with the kids seeing stuff the adults can’t see cause my 3 yr old talks to no one and so does my 2 month old laugh and coo’s at nothing to me ( the blank wall) but something to them and as for my 7 yr old he is still afraid of the dark and being alone
I am in total agreement with being afraid of spiders! Also when I was little I was afraid to have any part of me stick out from under the sheets and even more scared if I could hear the “lion” down the hall (which was my parents snoring). Both my boys are afraid of the dark and the youngest (4) is also afraid of deep dark places like under the bed or between the beds. But thtey both know (for now) mommy is strong and can beat up anything and as long as they think that they can be brave! (lol)
I still won’t let my feet hang out under the sheets. Another phobia I guess. LoL.
My son is petrified of dogs!! no matter what kind or size. he got knocked over by a pitbull puppy…(it is the nicest dog ever) but since that day all dogs scare him.
She is scared of “halloween” So we couldnt really decorate this year and have to assure her every night and sometimes during the day that Halloween isnt coming to our house, and that shes going to be ok. Shes ok with the halloween decorations at her aunts house but not at the store and she doesnt want them in our house…
My daughter is scared of being alone in the dark. If a nightlight is on she is fine. We lived in a two bedroom townhome for about a year, and she would wake up crying every night and pointing to one specific corner of her room. We thought it was the shadow a chair in the room cast, so we moved it. Nope, she still woke up and pointed at that same corner almost every night. When we moved it stopped, I still can’t quite figure out what it was that scared her. My son doesn’t really have any fear. That scares ME. He will run after strange dogs, go hug the legs of complete strangers, wander off into a strange, dark room without second thoughts, and tries to touch new things every where we go. I have to be Hover-Mom with him, and he’s not even 3 years old yet! He is going to give me gray hair.
Your daughter make have had a paranormal experience. They say young children are more sensitive to things like that. My daughter told me she saw my grandmother in her room when she was 2. My grandmother passed away before she was born. Since it stopped when you moved, there may have been a spirit that didn’t want to leave.
My daughter is 6 years old. She is afraid of certain sounds, to a degree where it interferes with her life. Flushing toilets, thunder, the hair dryer… She has sensory intergration dysfunction as she is on the autism spectrum. It’s hard finding therapy that takes insurance to help her.
My 1 1/2 yr old is TERRIFIED of a singing Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer stuffed animal. My 2 1/2 yr old frequently forgets this and pushes the button to make him sing, which usually elicits the loudest screams I have ever heard from my younger daughter!!!! It’s hard not to laugh at it, but it’s also pretty pathetic, it takes a while to calm her down.
My 4 year old son, although getting better now, is scared to death of fire alarms in public restrooms. Started when he was washing his hands in a restroom once and a kid outside the restroom pulled the alarm and it went off right next to my son. Sometimes cries and refuses to go in the restroom or wants to cover his ears while in there, which makes going very hard!
wow, i thought my daughter was the only one with this fear. she makes sure to use the stall closest to the door just in case a fire alarm goes off and she has to get out quickly.
Another thing is all the scary Halloween decorations. My two year old daughter is scared of her glow worm for some reason too. And spiders or any bug sometimes for both of them.
my son has a hard time being separted from me- he is 2 1/2….and both kids are afraid of monsters at night especially when it is dark in a room or shadows on the walls from a picture and they think it is a goblin!! my daughter is 5 years old!!!
my husband does not understand the trauma and has some sick thing about scaring them with a mask…- nightmares he causes – and we are separated and i am left with the after math from what he causes.
I have to agree with the post about Gremlins
I watched it early in the day when I was about 12 and was totally ok until later that night while we were falling asleep my little brother asked me what would happen if a gremlin got in the ocean. That one question kickstarted a terrible fear that stuck with me for years after the actual incident
I STILL to this day DO NOT like that movie
My oldest son decided it would be funny when he grabbed one of his supser scary blood soaked Halloween masks and walk down a slightly lit hallway growling at my 2 yr old. This was about 2 months ago and needless to say, to this day he won’t walk down the hall if it’s dark and he ALWAYS checks around the corner saying “Monster?”
My daughter is terrified of our house catching on fire in the middle of night. I guess it isn’t just our house, it is any building we are in. A girl in her class had a fire at her house in the middle of the night and it killed their pets. My daughter also went in the “smoke house” when she was 4 to learn how to get out of a house fire, but since she is so small all the bigger kids crawled right over her to get out. We have also had fire alarms go off when she is around, like at my school one night while I had her there with me working in the photo lab and at my parent’s house. She is just terrified. She even makes sure to use the bathroom stall closest to the door in public restrooms just in case the fire alarm goes off. She had panic attacks at school a few weeks ago when they learned about fire and what to do in case of one and had firemen come and teach them how to climb out a window safely. I don’t know what I can do to help her with this fear.
Ironic as this may sound my four year old son is afraid of the green dude on yo gabba gabba. He literally hates that show. But even though he doesn’t watch it he still screams grabs his stuffed dog Hiley (Riley) and tells me to put him back in the closet. He also is scared of thunder to the point where sometimes he will wet his pants and clowns. Don’t know why the sudden fear of clowns it just kinda came up.
I am however waiting for the strangers. Normally he’s ok with people minus new ones but he’s been getting a little more anxious around strange people.
My 2 year old (26 months) also hates loud electrical appliances… LOVES cooking, but runs to the other end of the house when I have to get out the mix master, then returns once it’s over and ‘safe’. LOL
Her other fear which took a while for us to figure out is grates. She has always skirted around them, but I didn’t realise how truly scared of them she was until she refused to leave a shopping centre because she couldn’t work out how to navigate her way around one running the full length of the exit. So now we have to jump up and down on them like idiots to ‘prove’ that they’re safe to walk on. Must look very funny to on-lookers. : )
My daughter 6 is suddenly afraid of things coming out of the walls. I think it is more people coming out of the walls in her room. I have done the potion route and nothing. Any ideas as I was scared too but light for me did the trick.
My daughter has bad dreams and just tonight told me to put the Snow White book in our room so the mean witch would scare her. We started reading Psalm 91 (kid version) every night and haven’t had problems except on nights I forget. My best friend got the kids some crosses from the craft store to put on the wall at the foot of their bunk bed… she is a firm believer in the power of the cross she has sitting on her night stand.
My 23 month old does not seem to be afraid of anything. He has no fear for anything it seems. He is one brave little boy. I on the other hand am still afraid of spiders and anything creepy crawly that comes near me.
I’ve done Paranormal Research for years…and dealt with the ramifications of sharing my bedroom with “something” as a child. I would be punished for jumping in my bed when, in fact, I was hiding under the blankets while my bed shivered and shook on the hard wood floors. They never believed me, so I refuse to “poo-poo” my daughter’s fears. I’ve never told her of my research, the multiple houses I’ve lived in where I experienced activity, or my trauma as a child. HOWEVER, she’s terrified of her room. Since she was an infant she would interact with “something” in her room. We’d watch her on the video monitor cooing away, laughing, and reaching for something that we could not see. So when she was older and complained of the “white lady” in her room, I paid attention. She wasn’t afraid of the woman as she only seemed to check on her like I did…and smile a sweet smile. But my daughter didn’t like sharing her room with her. She’s also complained of her door knob turning, but the door never opening. There isn’t much I can do to erase her fears, and I feel helpless. I remind her that we’ve made our house safe. IF there are ghosts (she says she doesn’t know if there are or not), I have made sure that our house is clear of anything negative and that I would never let her sleep in a place that wasn’t safe. But at 8 years old, she flat out refuses to go upstairs alone…even in the brightest light of day. Thankfully my 5 year old son is a good sport and goes with her normally. Needless to say, sending her to her room as punishment would be cruel and unusual. Personally, after all that I’ve experience in most houses I’ve lived in…and after all the “ghost hunting” I’ve done…I’m pretty used to dealing with the paranormal. I’m sensitive to the energy in a room. This is the first house I can remember that doesn’t have some type of activity going on. Can I say her fears are rational? NO, but I won’t ever tell her she’s wrong!
Oh, one more thing…both of my children have had a horrible fear of automatic toilets. So much so that they’ve both refused (at different ages) to go even when their back teeth were floating!!!
Sorry for the long post, but people brought up the possibility of the paranormal (simply meaning “above the normal”), so I wanted to address the topic. Feel free to contact me if you’d like on facebook!