Numberjacks - child terrified, help!

[bestthingsinlife]

Hi

My little boy (just turned 4) started school this September.

It's transpired over the last 2-3 weeks that they watch number jacks at school, and he's become terrified of being alone at bed time.

He's always been a bad sleeper, and tends to climb into bed with me and DH when we go up to bed (he'll normally go to sleep on his own, in his own bed first).

When I say scared, tonight he was shaking, and had tears by his eyes when he finally drifted off (next to me in bed, comforting him).

I feel so desperately sad for him.. and don't know what to do.

So Mumsnet any words of wisdom? How do we help him be less scared/cope? Do we talk to the school? Something we can do at home? I'm at a loss! There seems to be one character he's most scared of which is the problem blob, and actually I think it may be quite scary for such a little soul!

Help!

Yes talk to the school. My maths-genius 15 year old still remembers the Numberjacks terror.

Oh gosh so I'm not alone then! Did you talk to the school when your boy was younger? I'm not sure what they could even do!

I have one who was also terrified of them

Numberjacks is fucking terrifying! Why are they watching it?! I'd be raging tbh. There's no need for them to be watching programmes at school anyway, let alone ones with freaky characters in. Your poor DS.

Numberjacks is really bloody spooky, from the perspective of a 4yo. I was quite surprised when I saw it.

Definitely talk to the teacher. I'm not sure if they'll stop showing it but maybe she could sort of do little debriefs afterwards.

As for at home, maybe give him some things to protect himself with at bedtime? My DD went through a monsters in bedroom phase and something I read online was that because they struggle to separate fiction and reality, telling them there are no monsters doesn't help, because they are seeing them regardless, in dreams or shadows or whatever. I ended up putting a monster net hanging over the doorway, to keep them out and also made a lavender spray. Every night we sprayed the net because monsters hate that smell. I picked lavender in the hope it would help her sleep.

So maybe not exactly those things, but something to reassure him he's safe in bed?

My now 11 year old was petrified of spooky spoon, no idea why but it lasted ages and I banned the programme from tv totally. I would definitely speak to school!

My kids were thankfully immune, but the Number Taker scared the pants off me. It’s a really bizarre, bonkers concept - there must be better ways to teach maths

I'm another one that hates the numberjacks and 4 is too young, the bad guys are scary hated the Numbertaker too. So yes speak to school

Oh thank you all so much! I'm a very worried mummy tonight!

We've got him a dream catcher to throw the bad dreams into, and I picked up some lavender oil today so will try the spray too. I might just sit with him till he goes to sleep until I've had a chance to speak with the school... I feel so sorry for him bless him

He loved Numberjacks, because maths is his oxygen, but he was so scared of the baddies. God the Numbertaker!

Happily they didn't use it at school. It was a CBedbies fixture back then.

My dcs were also terrified of them...👺

Number taker? DD loved them until I took her to see a live show then it terrified her

DD year 1 teacher was DS and we joked about how she could put it on for a year when DD was there. Ds year it was just the puzzler she had to avoid

Agreed! It's mental, as a country we struggle with teaching maths and we have a horror program trying to put our kids off for life. It was the thing that stole numbers, one episode had a girl who lost one of her pigtails, my DD refused to have pigtails for months as was honestly terrified one pigtail would get stolen.

Another mum of a terrified number jacker. She only watched it in reception. I spoke to the teacher and they said they were stopping it. As she had a couple of parents claim there children were also scared

My children were terrified of the problem blob. My technique was exposure therapy - we watched the video of the problem blob song on youtube until the fear peaked then diminished.

@MrsBertBibby - oh my god - same here! DS (also 15) is a maths whizz and was freaked out by spooky spooky! I see a trend here.

My 14 yo used to be so scared of the Number Jacks she wouldn't go into the magazine section of the newsagents in case she saw them on the cover of CBeebies magazine - and she loves magazines. They were talking about it at her school recently and loads of them remembered how terrifying the show was. Probably most of the class of 4 year olds are having bad dreams. Not remotely suitable for small kids.

Hope your DS has a good night tonight!

Oh thank you all so much! I'm a very worried mummy tonight!

We've got him a dream catcher to throw the bad dreams into, and I picked up some lavender oil today so will try the spray too. I might just sit with him till he goes to sleep until I've had a chance to speak with the school... I feel so sorry for him bless him.

I've also just watched the number taker which he also mentioned and OMFG am I talking to the school on Monday.

My eldest was terrified of the shape japer. Awful programme !

I am more scared of number jacks than my DC were! But my eldest did have another fear of a programme they watched in primary school. I spoke to teacher and they sat with another class or doing a different task while rest of class watched. No fuss was made and dealt with very nicely. Bed time is just a long game of reassurance, talking through fears, relaxation techniques etc.

that's weird I was just thinking about number jacks today and wondered why it's not on any more. after a visit to you tube I concluded that it's probably because it's terrifying for little kids.

Bless him! It is a really odd, creepy program. My DS loved it though and created imaginary friends inspired by it!

My almost 2 year old watches number jacks at nursery with the older children - I think I need to watch it now to see

Thanks again everyone! Going to call the school first thing Monday and see if they can help at all.

Sounds like there's lots of DCs out there who have had similar experiences, which does make me feel I'm not going OTT!

Numberjacks is bloody terrifying!

Thank goodness we now have numberblocks to watch...much nicer for kids.