Monster(s) in my house.

Monster is afraid of monsters. Ironic? Maybe. Super fun and silly? Not one bit.

I don't know when it happened, or why, but he started talking about "monsters" six months ago or so. It started with a dragon. One day he ran, screaming from his room and when I went to investigate with him he said there was a dragon outside his window. We looked, he freaked out and cried, and I was left wondering if his imagination had gotten the better of him, or if something had flown by and scared the pants off him.

Either way the whole monster debacle is payback, I just know it. I am going to tell you a secret, once when I was working in a daycare the heater vent kicked on and started making noise. One little boy, who always took forever in the bathroom jumped and asked what the noise was. Me being frustrated, and not thinking it through, told him it was a monster. The poor boy started refusing to go in the bathroom at all. I overheard his mom asking another staff member about monsters the next week, and I totally avoided her and never explained his sudden aversion to bathrooms. If I ever bump into him I will have to apologize, but for now we will just continue to keep it a secret and keep our fingers crossed it didn't ruin his bathroom trips for life!

My monster, on the other hand, came up with his fear on his own as far as I know. He wont go in a dark room, he wont go in a room if he has to open the door first, and he wakes up screaming at night after talking about monsters during the day.

I have tried a couple solutions. First, an idea from a friend, I told him our dog ate monsters, so he was totally safe because she eats them all up. But then we had to put our dog down this summer so the monsters started appearing again. So we started shooting them. He has several play guns and runs around shouting "There's one! Pew! I got 'em!"

Then today I came up with my "best" idea yet! He went to wash his hands in the dark bathroom which had the door closed. I heard him open the door and call out "Hello?" and then he ran back to me and asked me to come with him. When I opened the door and turned on the light I screamed "AARRRRGHHGHGH!!!". Monster jumped and said "Don't DO that!!". And then I explained:

"If you yell at the monsters they will all run away. They don't like yelling!".

And now, Monster is running around the house, yelling at the top of his lungs to scare all the monsters away. Yup. Best idea ever.