3 yo and scary bedroom

[carocaro]

All of a sudden it's scary.

We have bought a new night light, he does not like the trees he says that are 30 feet at the end of the garden and there are no shadows in his room.

We have been to see the trees in the daylight and looked at them in the dark, have said birds and squirrels are cost fast aslepp in the trees.

We have a had a week of screaming and him coming downstairs, he has been screaming for over 2 hours a night.

If one of stays in our bedroom whilst he falls asleep that seems to work, but means me or DH are trapped upstairs for 2 hours a night.

Any tips for dealing with this 'scary bedroom' thing?

Been there with both ds1 and ds2.
All I can say is that with your constant reassurance that his own bedoomr is not a scary place, he will gradually be happier there. Ds2 is 5 now and still doesn't like the light to be off so we leave a side light on while he goes to sleep and then turn it off once he's asleep. We found that nightlights sometimes cast shadows round the room that DS felt unhappy about so maybe you can check round the room for weird looking shadows that will look scary to a 3 yo!
DS2 also likes to hear us moving around in the house.
We also had to stay in the room with ds2 when he went to sleep and, like you, it ate up our evenings so we had to sort it out and we've done it by staying with him for a bit while he gets sleepy and then whoever is with his will say "Right I'm just going to go and sort out the washing/go to the loo/clean the playroom etc and then I'll be right back to check on you" and once we're out of the room we wait a bit and then often by the time we go back upstairs to check, he's fast asleep, happy in the knowledge that we're going back up to check on him. Important to make sure you do go back up to check though in case he's still awake and then it reaffirms the trust and he will know you always do go back to check.
HTH - can sympathise as we have been there but have also managed to sort it out and now DS will settle to sleep on his own as long as we leave the light on and he knows we're around

do the shadows come in could you get water in a bottle and spray magic spray to get rid of anything scary make it all fun

if shadows do come in can bed be moved so doesn't see them or black out blind fitted behind curtains

also could you have story tape playing in background so its not so silent in his room

Having this problem with my 4yo DS at the moment too. I think it's important not to belittle their fears, as they are very real to them so I check the wardrobes and under the bed for monsters if he asks me to. We found that reading "The Owl Who Was Scared of the Dark" helped. We've tried to show him that the dark can be fun by looking at the stars or the static charge on the tumble-dried laundry!

We also keep the bedside lamp on with a 10 watt bulb and the door ajar. We've got glow in the dark stars on the ceiling. And DS has a torch in bed with him which he can use if he gets scared in the middle of the night or gets up to use the toilet.

If he comes downstairs in the evening I just carry him back up, quietly reassure him that it's OK to go to sleep and then leave. Having said that, one night we found him asleep on the stairs (next day he told us he wasn't scared there!)

I'm hoping he'll grow out of it when his common sense catches up with his imagination! Hope your DS does too.

We went through (and still are to an extent) with DD who is now 4.8. It started when she was about 3 and previously had slept with a blackout blind and closed door. We had to give her a night light and started to leave the landing light on until she is asleep. We too do the 'back in 5 minutes while I do x/y/z' thing and it does work and takes up much less of your evening even if you have to do it 5/10 times. Agree that you shouldn't make fun of their fears. In the past year we have had weeks where we need to say a spell to get rid of ghosts, make sure a fairy that hangs in her window is facing out etc. There's much less of it now but if she's ill or very tired it can surface again. It is all just part and parcel of growing up I think and if you are supportive it is less likely to become a big issue.