Fears

Over the last few months, we have noticed some changes in Sarah. We have always called her our little dare devil because she seemed to have no fear. She is our thrill seeker of a child, she loves all things fast and high, she loves to go right up to animals of any kind, large or small. Quite honestly, she has always shocked both Pat and I with her lack of fear.

Even though all these things are still true, It seems we are facing the first thing that Sarah is fearful of......{well, maybe the second thing, how could I forget about Santa, otherwise known as The Scary Man}

The Dark!!

I am going to say it was sometime in November that she started showing signs. One evening, out of nowhere, she started talking about Monsters, but not just any monster, cookie monster!! At first I didn't think to much of it, after all she loved cookie monster, but the more she talked, I realized she was trying to tell us not to enter the dark room because there was a monster in there, cookie monster to be exact!!

I started to think that maybe all the Halloween talk of ghouls and ghosts were the cause of her monster talk and with any luck as we moved into the new holiday season the monster talk would stop.

It didn't, in fact it has gotten much worse and it doesn't seem to be monsters that are scaring her, it is the darkness. In the evenings if I am in one room downstairs and Pat is in another room, she will not walk from room to room unless everything is completely lit up.......She will scream....IT'S SCARY MOMMY and make us turn on every light in the house. If we turn something off, she will go back over and turn it on and tell us LIGHTS ON.

Now, I know this is a common age for Night Terrors, but we have not experienced that, at least I don't think that we have. She has woken up once or twice and pointed at the shadows from the trees and the lighted sensors that work with our security system but never full out violent screams and thrashing like I have read that is common with night terrors. On the occasions that she did wake up, Pat picked her up and walked her over to the window to show her where the shadows were coming from and the same thing with the lights on the detectors. She seemed to understand and it has not happened since.

Although, she is not waking up in the middle of the night, the monster talk and scared of walking through dark rooms in our house is constant. We have been trying to reassure her that there are no monsters living in this house, not even a Cookie Monster.......one might beg to differ if they see Pat and Nick once Girl Scout Cookies are delivered, but that is a story for another day......

When Nick was little he had lots of fears, but never of the dark or monsters, so this is a new one for us. Besides consoling her and keeping our rooms lit up, what else can we do to get her over this fear?? Have any of your children gone through this and what did you do to help put their minds at ease? I would love to hear thoughts and suggestions from those who have traveled down this road.