Would you speak to nursery about this?

[Nicd1]

3yo DC has suddenly become terrified of ghosts. Mentions them daily, wakes up crying saying there is one in his room etc.. he sometimes will pretend to be one too by putting a blanket over his head.

I am trying to downplay it a lot, say oh they are only pretend and move him on to something else.

The thing is when I ask where he hears about them he says nursery. Obviously I know a 3 year old isn't the most reliable witness but I have wracked my brains and I can't think of a single time where I have discussed a ghost with him or watched anything with them in, even a child's film.

Would you discuss this with nursery? He clearly knows what they are so has seen or heard about them from somewhere!

I would mention it in the context of just to let you know DS seems to be scared of ghosts ATM, obviously we're reassuring him they're make believe but just thought we'd give you the heads up if there's any mentioned in nursery

Was he already at nursery over the halloween period? Might have seen or heard of ghosts in relation to that

He was yes! But this is within the last month he's started mentioning them. It was the first thing I thought of though.

You could mention it to see if they can throw some light on it although it may have been something another child has said. Don't voice it as a complaint.

I was a teacher in a school Nursery Class and one of the children told me he had a ghost in his house. It was yellow and sat on the stairs, apparently, but he wasn't bothered about it.

Yeah I'd have a casual chat at collection or pick up about it. At the nursery I use the first thing they ask when I drop off is how has she been so I'd just say...health-wise fine thanks, but she's been worrying a lot about ghosts. I've been doing xyz to calm her down. I'm not sure where she's heard about ghosts, is it anything that you do here?

Yes I'm not going to complain, just perplexed as to where its come from.... and admittedly a bit creeped out when he's crying and pointing to a ghost in his room in the middle of the night..!!!

I would probably explain that he has suddenly developed this fear and you don't know where it's come from. They'll probably have a vague idea. It's possible he chose a book from the book corner with a ghost and had a staff member read it to him. Or maybe another child was role playing as a ghost and your DS joined in.

When my DS had just turned 3, he developed a strong interest for all things spooky. He would tell me he was scared and would talk about monsters, zombies, vampires, and ghosts. It came from a "Super Simple Songs" Halloween video aimed at toddlers, so definitely not scary or nefarious.

Have a casual chat first. I had a similar experience my 3 year old was terrified of the monster in the cave, I spoke to nursery they couldn’t account for it, as in no books or stories shared along those lines.

it was only months later after it passed, he was showing me a book at home and he went ‘look mummy the monster in the cave’ there were 2 eyes in a cave in one of the pictures I hadn’t noticed before, and was age appropriate book etc but he appeared to latch onto this.

There are quite a few childrens books which have ghosts in them, the first one I thought off was The Baddies by Julia Donaldson. Which would probably be about the right age for nursery kids. The Meg and Mog series has one called Meg's Castle which has ghosts in too. So it's possible he's come across something innocent and latched on to it.

My DS did the same thing with zombies, after watching a halloween episode of Steve and Maggie which had dancing zombies in it. For weeks he was scared of the dark because there might be zombies. Eventually he has accepted that they are not real, but it took some time, bless him.

It could be other kids, books, etc. I’d maybe let staff know there is an issue. But I’d say you need to keep managing it.