5 yo scared at bedtimes - help

[Sabriel]

5 yo DD woke up in the night a couple a weeks ago hysterical about there being a crocodile in the house. Obviously a bad dream but she could still see its red eyes.

Had a good chat next day about where crocodiles live (not here) and looked them up on google to see what sort of habitats they liked (not a road of 1930s houses) and all was well.

fast forward to this week and she's started making a fuss about going to bed. Thought it was delaying tactics at first but we've had several evenings where she's been hysterical about "something in the corner". She goes to sleep with the lights on, and this is happening about 1 -1.5 hrs after going to bed, when it is still light. I get everything out of the corner to show her and she's asking "what's behind that". Shaking and looking really worried, and talking about monsters.

I don't think she's seen anything on TV that has scared her so I don't know what this is about. It's getting really wearing trotting up and downstairs all evening & DH is getting annoyed with her because he thinks she's attention seeking. While she usually is, this time I think she is genuinely scared.

Any ideas how I can overcome this for her? Is this a peak age for Monster fears?

Poor little thing. Yes, I think it is the peak aid for monsters/ghosts/fear of the dark.

I used to read a book to dd called 'The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark' by Jill Murphy (I think that was who wrote it) about a baby owl who is scared stiff of the dark which obviously especially bad if you are an owl. His mum points out all the great things about dark/night and by the end the baby is fine about it. dd used to love the book. I also used to take her out to do things you can only do in the dark like watch for bats or listen/spot owls/light sparklers/look at the stars/moon etc.

When I used to tuck her into bed I'd 'put' good dreams onto her pillow for when she went to sleep. I tried not to make a big deal about her bad dreams or bedtime fears. I just tried to make bed time as fun and as cosy as possible.

There might not be anything on TV that dd has watched but there's all sorts of stories about monsters/skeletons/aliens etc that could have been read at school that may have scared her. Because kids take things so literally at that age there can be lots of weird and wonderful reasons for a child to be anxious or upset. Terms such as heart attack/fire practice for instance could to a small child conjure up images of someone's heart literally being 'attacked' or of having to light a fire to practise how to put one out etc etc.

Perhaps dd could also make her very own monster out of felt or an old sock etc and he could be given a character by you that is gentle and funny and a bit daft. This could help de-mystify the 'monsters are scary' thinking. You could also make this monster scared of monsters and worried about his bedtime and get dd to talk to him about how there aren't such things really and reassure him about that.