What do you tell a little 2 1/2 year old about monsters

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do you tell them they don't exast when he gets scared? or does that curtail his imagination???

my one is pretty bright so if i tell him no monsters exist he becomes relieved and all happy but then i may be blocking his childhood imagination??

cuz any time i am to read a fantasy story to him - he would say - "nothing of this exists"

what do i do?

Mine told me that ghosties are only "people in dressing up clothes!"

And that "monsters live in drainpipes and plugholes"

You don't need to tell them about monsters - they think them up for themselves!

If he's scared of them, you tell him they don't exist. Simple. You won't stunt his imagination, or his enjoyment of stories just because he understands that they are "made up" things. My DS always wanted to know if things were real or made up, but he still enjoys reading fantasy stories (at 16).

Yep, just say they are pretend.

It won't stunt his imagination.

'Sometimes people like to pretend there are monsters, for fun - what kind of monster would you pretend there is?'

(watching with interest)
Ds is just starting to find some things scary, DH is inadvertently fostering this by thoughtlessly saying "ooh look, scary things!" - I say "See the silly thing, look, it's so silly, isn't it funny" or something along those lines to try and defuse it.

DS is scared enough of the plug noises, without adding in that there might be a monster down there! He probably thinks that already.

If DD (3.8) has a monster in her bedroom I make a great fuss at telling it to go away and sending it downstairs and out of the cat flap. DD thinks it is hilarious and joins in with me shouting at the monsters to go out of the cat flap.

My reasoning behind this is that DD is far more likely to believe that I will protect her from monsters than that they don't exist.

So far this method is working well and several of our friends have found that it works with their children too.

I have said both that they are pretend, and that the best way to get rid of them is to shout 'GO AWAY, MONSTER!', and that this makes them whimper and run away. DS doesn't seem to see any contradiction in shouting at pretend things.

hmm

not had monster trouble but dd(2.6) has developed a fear of Scarface Claw from the Hairy Maclary books. However usually her scared queries are very specific so the best response is an equally specific one - eg
DD: Scarface Claw not bite Jonanthan?
MrsB: No, Scarface Claw won't bite Jonathan

I think the key thing to remember isn't so much to repress their imagination as to reassure them an not deny their feelings, iyswim.
So don't say eg 'Monsters aren't scary' because he knows damn well they are.
Maybe try 'Monsters are only in books/stories' as a way that will let him imagine them safely, but be aware that they;re not part of the real world?

My dgs is terrified of the churh tower.He says it makes growly noises in the night and he acts out these noises with genuine terror.His other fears are bears[but not baby ones]and crocodiles.So real things but obviously not in an English country garden or a 3 year old's bedroom.I find the tower thing quite disturbing as I havent heard of this before.