Xander Week 125 – Monsters (again)!
July 31, 2009Last year around Halloween Xander decided that he was terrified of monsters. Monsters were going to get him at every turn. He was convinced that they were going to get his toes while he slept (he slept in socks for at least 6 months) and getting him to sleep every night was a challenge. There were many nights that he fell asleep in my arms because he would not or could not go to sleep any other way. At some point we finally convinced Xander that he was safe, no monsters were going to “get him”. He’s been sleeping great for the past six months. Now, all of the sudden, the monster fear is back. It doesn’t matter what I tell him or how I try to convince him, he is certain that monsters are going to get him. He doesn’t want to sleep in his bed, he doesn’t want to go to school, the poor kid is terrified of some monster somewhere, and I don’t know how to help him. I do know that we started putting Xander to sleep at 7:30 last night, and we were still fighting with him at 9:00pm to go to sleep. And then at 1am he crawled into bed with us, and since Parker was also not sleeping, we were too tired to protest at that point.
We’ve tried reassuring Xander that he is safe, no monsters can get him, that Mommy and Daddy would never let anyone or anything hurt him. I’ve told him that we have the whole house sprayed in monster protection spray and that monsters can’t get in. I set up a flashlight to point into his closet so that he could see there were no monsters in there. We’ve tried empowering him, telling him to squish or punch any monsters that he sees. I’m running out of ideas, and in my sleep-deprived state, I’m not sure what else I can do to reassure my son…
In our town there are many, many opportunities for Halloween trick-or-treating, parties, etc. It all starts the Friday night before Halloween, this year, it was the week before. The local business host trick-or-treating in their shops. There is music and activities on the town common, candy in the stores, and often hot cider and cookies around for hungry parents. We brought Xander with some friends last year, and although he was too young to really appreciate the event, he had fun people watching, and we enjoyed the near mob scene. This year, we took Xander again, thinking that even though he is still small, he would probably enjoy seeing the other kids, and all the people.