Step daughter sleeping help!

[SamT210]

Hi,

I have 3 step children, 2 boys (7&9) and a girl (6), the boys share a room and my step daughter has her own room, recently it's been a real issue at bedtime. Our house is a dorma and the boys room is downstairs, leaving SD and our room upstairs. She's saying she doesn't like being the only one upstairs because she has a large built in triple wardrobe and she's scared there's something in there. We show her there's nothing in there and reassure her that our room is just next door but it gets to the point where she's hyperventilating because she's crying so much.. any advice on how to tackle the 'monster in the wardrobe'?

Could you swap her to the downstairs room?

Thanks for replying, the way the wardrobes are installed and the slanted ceiling means we wouldn't fit 2 beds/bunk bed in the upstairs room for the boys

Try making a ‘No Monsters Allowed’ poster for the wardrobe door? Give her something constructive to do to manage the fear?

Following on from the above, could you make a ‘monster spray’? Google will give you a few ideas for one. Have a spray round with it and then maybe get her a few nice things that she can place in the wardrobe that is now ‘monster free’.

Have her share with the younger boy and have the older boy in the single room. By the time she needs to be split from her brothers she should have outgrown this fear.

Old baby monitor? Tell her you would hear if anything was there and will keep an ear out for her.

Most 6 year olds wouldn’t want to be on a floor away from their siblings.
I would either put the 6 and 7 year old in the same room and see if the 9 year old will go upstairs. Or I’d put a spare mattress in the downstairs room and then move the child once asleep.

Give the 9yp the room upstairs and let the two youngest share ... they will be fine sharing for a couple of years!!