Tetraphobia (fear of monsters) is extremely common in pre-school-age children. It generally lessens during the early elementary years and is highly uncommon by the time a child reaches middle school. In teens and adults, the fear of monsters is a rare but potentially life-limiting phobia. About.Com
Many young children develop a fear of monsters at bedtime and it can become a battle to calm them when they become afraid.
Is there a scary monster hiding under your child’s bed?
Kaiden suddenly became afraid at bedtimes, nothing had happened and nothing had changed but he was convinced that there was a scary monster under his bed. His tears were real, so was the fear. It was difficult and frustrating to deal with. I began to dread bedtimes, we had to take action against the monsters.
The Fear Of Monsters Survival Kit We Made
Take an empty show box and cover it with shiny wrapping paper.
You will need;
A cuddly toy for comfort
A torch to make the dark corners look less frightening
A weapon to scare the monsters away
We used a monster spray. This was easily made by washing out an empty spray bottle and decorating it with monster stickers.
We then filled it with water and voila, we had our very own monster disappearing spray.
I also asked Kaiden to draw what his monster looked like, we then coloured it in with sparkling glitter pens, the monster looked less scary when it was bright pink with purple eyes and in fact it looked rather cute. We gave it a name and talked about what it liked to eat.
The fear of monsters soon became less of an issue as I reminded him that his monster liked to eat hot dogs and strawberries, not little boys.
While we want to reassure our frightened child that the fear of monsters is OK and teach them that we all get scared at times, we don’t want to make it seem that monsters are real and they actually have something to be fear.
Leaving a lamp or light on is reasonable and my own children prefer to have the landing light left on.
We have checked wardrobes and under the beds before bedtime to ensure no monsters are hiding, but when it turns into a daily routine, a different approach is needed.
The fear of monsters is a common childhood fear and one that your child will grow out of, but you can help your child by talking through the fear itself.
Have you any books or films about nice monsters, to make them appear less scary?
Has your child ever had a fear of monsters? How did you deal with this?
