I've traumatised my toddler with a singing reindeer! Help!

[Nosingreindeer]

SOS
I never thought my first real parenting challenge would be over a singing reindeer but here we are...

I have an adorable, if feral, little 21month old boy and a novelty singing head reindeer (Other things too but these are the only relevant ones). Last year the boy loved the singing reindeer and would cry the moment it stopped singing, lots of dancing around with it. This year we went to Centre Parc and they had singing reindeers and we stood in the cold for ages each day watching them. We were certain we were in for a sure winner with our wee singing reindeer.

I have never been more mistaken in my life.
The boy was getting to the tail end of a wee winter illness and we'd been in the house a few days so to cheer him we took out the decorations including our reindeer. He was interested, we stroked the reindeer then mummy turned it on to sing and unleashed the greatest terror known to this particular toddler.

He was a touch unsure at the time and I asked if he wanted it again, he said no so we put it away. After that he kept bringing it up "sing, reindeer, no" and shaking his finger. We tried to say "ok, that's no problem we dont have to have the reindeer" but he kept fixating on it. After a day or two we brought the reindeer out to show it was just a toy and he shook with fear.

We put it right away but he kept bringing it up for days "reindeer sing, no". Eventually we brought it out and kept it off but just had it around hoping it would lose its power. Every time he asks about it we confirm it won't sing and sometimes we talk about it "what colour is its nose? How many antlers does it have? This is a reindeer and we have reindeer decorations on the tree, can you find any? Do the reindeers help santa?"

We show him videos of him dancing to the reindeer last year which he loves and asks for but hes still fixated on the thing.

We never bring it up but he mentions it 10+ times a day. Have a ruined the child already, scarred with a lifetime terror of Rudolph? Will this be session one of his therapy in adult years?

Anyone survived similar? Top tips? He's a sensitive soul and I hate it's worrying him.

So bin the damn reindeer get another novelty toe. It’s really not a biggie. No, is no
Go buy another random Christmassy tat toy

My daughter was traumatised by a speaking parrot toy that copied her voice and flapped its wings. Despite this she loves birds and is now a vet. Go figure! Just forget about it, he will if you stop bringing it up.

Bin it.

I traumatised ds1 when he was little with the Muppet Christmas Carol.

He fell asleep so I wandered off to get a drink and he woke up in one of the darker bits. He got over it.

He also used to run out of the room when cranky crane fell over in Thomas the Tank engine!

He’s a relatively normal 21 year old now!

Put the reindeer away. Toddlers are funny little thing 😂

This reminds me of the year my sister got a tickle-me-elmo for Christmas. My then toddler DS loved the box (it said 'ah, ah ah. No peeking' when you opened the flap).
Then she took Elmo out, turned him on and all hell broke loose. I have never seen my poor boy so terrified. We'd only have to mention Elmo and he'd hide behind the sofa!
He did outgrow the fear. Although to this day (he's 19) he'll tell you Elmo should die

What makes the whole story funnier is that his Godmother is known as Elmo. We bought her an Elmo dvd. DS merrily pointed at the Elmo on the cover and declared to his Godmother "that's you. I don't like you!"

I'd just make sure he knows the reindeer is put away/in the bin and he'll forget about it eventually.

Don’t bin it. We had a tractor which moved and played the song Old Macdonald my grandson (18month old) was terrified of it. I put it away, but whenever he visited he would be searching for the tractor.

I had to display it so he could see it but never ever switch it on.

Say ‘Go away Reindeer’’ and let him watch you brandish your sweeping brush at it, put it in a bag, and into the outside bin. Slam the lid and say ‘reindeer GONE!’

Then later secretly get it out (hence bag) and hide it in loft for 3 years.

These responses are cracking me up. Thank you everyone. @imnotwhoyouthinkiam, my sister is terrified of the cookie monster to this day (30 years old) because i told her he would mistake her for a chocolate chip cookie because she has brown eyes and he would eat her. That one is on me.

I have no love for this reindeer, would be thrilled to bin, was just worried that if it disappeared and he couldn't see it was a perfectly harmless toy it would fester in his tiny mind into something bigger.

Bin it and say its gone, no need to worry or leave it out and ignore it and hope it becomes boring?

Never thought this would take up so much brain space.

Scaring the crap out of toddlers, knowing they’ll almost certainly never remember it, is half of the scant fun of parenting 😂