3yo scared of monsters

[Nel1678]

My 3.5 year old is petrified of monsters in our house. This isn't a nightime/bedtime issue, she is scared in the daytime. She won't go into the kitchen or upstairs on her own and today she was climbing the stairs (I had to be behind her) and she was screaming she was so scared. Despite my assurances that she is safe, she remains scared. It seems to have come from nowhere... Does anyone have any tips on how I can help her get over her fear please?

What sort of monsters are they? Has she seen anything scary recently? Do you do a monster check? We used to hit a broom 3 times and sat monsters be gone!

Have you tried any make belief ways of handling this?

Get a bottle of monster killing spray and use that around the house!

I agree with a pp. You need a spray bottle of ‘monster repellant’ I can’t believe you don’t already have any!

Assure dd that you won’t allow monsters in the house and use the spray. It works wonders!

Yup, another fan of the "monster go away spray" as it's called in our house.

I filled a squirt bottle with water and lavender oil which also has the added bonus of helping DS1 sleep better.

But similar to you OP, DS(4) talks about monsters day and night. He's convinced we've got monsters living in our outside utility room - I think he heard the washing machine on a big spin. I've told him that I feed them so they stay there and don't come in the house which placated him a little.

Thank you all for your help. I'm going to make a bottle of monster spray today and see how that goes! I've tried asking her what the monster looks like and she gives me different answers each time - once she said it was a woman who was angry with her and wanted her to put her socks on, another time it was a T-Rex! (She usually loves dinosaurs). I shall do the spray idea and see how it goes - thank you! :) x

Isn’t making monster spray reinforcing their belief that there are monsters though?
I’d be minded to just keep repeating there’s no such thing as monsters.

I don't think you are really acknowledging that there is a monster. You acknowledge their feelings, you should obviously check under the bed in the wardrobe etc. It's also important to understand children have amazing imaginations, I think monster spray is great at helping them pivot that emotion and take control of their feelings and take control of their space in a positive way. Also monster sprays you can buy contain essential oils which can be really useful. I used this one on my DD brambleandblossom.co.uk/products/little-monster-spray you could also make your own, but this one was reasonable and we found it worked for us. :)

Another vote for monster spray. Kids need their fears to be acknowledged. One of mine was convinced that there was a ghost in his bedroom door. I kicked it up the bum and it landed into a cage on the moon. Ghost gone, happy boy who at 22 is no longer scared of ghosts and monsters 😁