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Trying to Battle Monsters
If your kids are anything like mine, then they may have the occasional hard time getting to sleep, or the “monster phase,” where they are afraid of everything. Well, Adelaide is currently in the monster phase. It’s fun. “Mommy, can you come with me?” “To the bathroom? No, thanks.” Screaming out moments after tucking her in because she’s scared. I’m sure some of you can relate.
While I know this is all developmental and normal, it sucks. With my teaching experience and early childhood background, you would think I would have thought of “monster spray” on my own. But, no. Even though we have “Cranky cream” and “concentration cream” and “boo-boo cream” in the classroom, when it came to my own child, I couldn’t think of monster spray.
So, What is Monster Spray?
Monster spray is a spray bottle of water, people! That is all. I still haven’t done it, because I have been too busy to make it to the store to buy a cheap water bottle. Then my dumb self suggested that Adelaide come with me to get a spray bottle this weekend to make monster spray and she innocently asked “You know how to make monster spray?” So now, instead of just water, we will be adding lavender essential oil. Because, you know, monsters hate lavender.
Lavender came out of a moment of panic when I realized I screwed up and talked about making monster spray, so I quickly inventoried what essential oils I had. And then, duh, lavender is supposed to help calm, so that is a no-brainer. When I told Adelaide that I had lavender to add to the monster spray she got very excited. She may have mentioned garlic to keep the vampires away, but I don’t want my house smelling like that. Then, I remembered that we have a whole bag of fresh lavender sachets, so I ran down and got one to hang next to her bed. She hates the smell, but won’t dare move it away, because it protects her from monsters!
Countering Monsters with Lavender
The next day she even told me that she had a bad dream where monsters were chasing her and she threw the lavender at the monster and it ran away because it “smelled like dirty diapers!” I can’t blame her. In fact, I am happy that I am not the only one that doesn’t like the smell of lavender. But, big picture, it helped!
So, if you have a kid in the monster phase, try out some monster spray. If you don’t have a spray bottle, think of anything you have that could be used as a monster deterrent (a lemon, a special knick-knack, whatever!) and tell them that monsters hate _____. And then go back to not waking up 10 times a night because of monsters in their dreams.
Another trick is to get a “dream catcher.” We all know they don’t actually do anything, but your kid doesn’t need to know that. My parents brought both kids dream catchers from one of their trips and they both have them somewhere in their bedrooms. For a while, they were under pillows!
What bedtime tricks have you found to deal with normal childhood developmental thing like monsters and bad dreams? Share you tips and tricks with us in the comments or over on our Facebook page.
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