Monsters - Georgetown,TX

well, i don't think there's one right answer to this.
because i do believe there are spirits of various orders, and that little ones can perceive them more easily than adults, i myself would undertake a thorough cleansing and banishing of the space. and inviting in a guardian. stuffed dragons worked very well as dwelling places for the guardians i invoked for my monster-sensitive nieces.
every night for 4 months is way too long to be expecting the child to deal with this. since the monster spray isn't working, and she's so clear about the location of the monster, i'd move her. if there's no way to switch up the bedrooms, i'd let her bunk down in a 'nest' in her parents' room for a while.
and i'd run it by the pediatrician. most kids experience the monster thing, but this is pretty long-lasting. it may NOT be anything physiological, but in this case i'd want to rule that out.
khairete
S.

Ever watch Veggie Tales? There's one called, "Where's God When I'm S-scared?" Junior watches a scary movie and can't sleep. Bob and Larry tell him a story and they all sing a song called "God is Bigger."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jd4qnxj7D0

It's really cute, and sometimes I sing it to my 5 year old if he gets scared at night.

I believe in spirits. I saw my dad's spirit at Adam-ondi-ahman after he passed away. It's a very pastoral area and peaceful. We'd walked down to the overlook and were on our way back to our car. We came around a sort of bend in the walkway and there he was, hunched on one foot with the knee of the other leg up, with his arms on it. He was just looking around at the people.

I also feel my MIL's spirit in her house when I'm quiet and still. I feel like she's sitting right beside me sometimes.

I also believe in blessing a new house and having it cleansed, as one mom put it. This can be a resource that your child will believe in even if you don't believe in it too.

The veil is thin for the younger kids and I believe they can see and feel things we are socialized to ignore and say they aren't real.

If there is something she's feeling or sensing then you will have to deal with it or start giving her a sleep aid.

Reading these responses, a memory came to me of what we did for our oldest daughter (around 3 at the time). I told her that at night time, all the monsters were awake and they go down to the neighborhood park (1 1/2 blocks away) to play. They loved being there at night because all the human kids were in bed asleep. We would sit on her bed and talk about how funny it would be to see all the monsters swinging, sliding and rolling down the hill! This comforted her by taking the scary away.

Anyway, I hope there's a suggestion in these responses that will help your granddaughter.

Best of luck.

L.

Have you considered a cleansing of the apartment?

Every night for four months? What does her pediatrician say?

When my kids said they were afraid of monsters, I just said "You're afraid of Elmo?!". They said "No." The I said "Well, Elmo and Cookie Monster are the only monsters I've ever known. And they are friendly! What makes you think monsters are scary??" They didn't know and that ended the monster talk. That and I got them a Spoka from Ikea. They can bring light into bed with them and that helped calm their fears.
However, my daughter (then 3) did see the "lady in the darkness" for while. And the "little boy with the tummy ache". That was pretty creepy- she could describe the lady and boy in great detail. I just went into her room with her and gave the lady and boy a firm talking to, and that seemed to help. Good luck. And know this phase will pass. Many parents go through this same thing.

We went with the friendly monster approach. Of course we have monsters in the house. They look after us when we are sleeping and watch the house when we are out. It is a stage. But since you can't make them go away, we opted to go with it. It worked really well. My son would refer to them as the guarders.

Honestly, we did 3 things ...

1. We went on vacation for a week to the beach. Away from home when the monster talk started, I told DS monsters couldn't swim so they couldn't follow us to the beach. When we got home, I told him we were gone so long, all the monsters left. It worked for a bit.

2. About that same time, we introduced Monsters, Inc. (the original) and would talk about how the monsters were silly and friendly and how they helped Boo get back home. Seeing them as silly made a HUGE difference.

3. Recently, there was a Caillou episode about the scratchy monster that reignited the monsters ... So I told him I sent all the monsters away to Caillou's house for Gilbert to play with. It's worked so far ...

(ETA: we're not far from you ... About 30 minutes down rt. 1 ... The beach was Chincoteague, so if your daughter and family are local here, a night or two there could maybe help. There's a Hampton Inn on the island.)

Since this has been going on so long, the first thing I recommend is rearranging her room, maybe even with her bed against the spot she afraid of so she is no longer facing the spot. Definitley consider the effect of lighting in the room from monitors, night lights, street lights outside, the hall, anything that might be casting an odd glow or a shadow. My son used to see awful looking moving shadows in his room that we could not see because the shadows were caused by us when we were in his sister's room in front her air purifier. It took us forever to figure out what he was seeing.

Another thing to consider... is she taking any medication? When my daughter was 3, she took Claritin allergy med. and she started having more than bad dreams. It was more like night terrors. Thank ggodness my husband had had the same reaction when had taken it years ago and recognized it as the cause (after about a week). The night terrors stopped when we changed medications.

My best advice, though, is this. I was terrified of the dark as a kid all the way until about two months after after I got married! I had even lived alone in college for two years! Someone it took my husband being away in the Marine Corps on training for me to finally get over it.

So, I vowed that no child of mine would ever be forced to sleep alone in her room if she/he was truly too afraid to do it. Seriously, what is the point in forcing a child to be terrified? It made no difference for me. As in, it didn't make me get over it by making me tough it out. So when my kids occasionally go through phases where they are afraid (usually around that awful time of Halloween or after seeing something scary when the school shows them a stupid movie) I either lie down with them until they fall back asleep or I let them sleep in my room for even a few days until they get over their fear and sleep in their own room again.

And it has always worked. It always turns out it's just a short phase they needed help getting past.

Teach her to politely ask the spirit/monster/ghost/whatever to "Please go away and let me sleep. I'm tired. Thank you!"

Also, consider moving the night light to another socket. If it's just shadows, it might help.

If that doesn't work out, I'm also supportive of a cleansing or prayer over the home. Ask your pastor or spiritual leader to come and pray over the home and ask the spirits in the dwelling to find their way into the hereafter. I don't fully understand why spirits stick around, but I know they do.

Find the book Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley. It helped my son. He even dressed up like the green monster one Halloween.

It really doesn't matter if this is a real spirit or an imagined one. She is young enough to let her imagination be just as helpful as it is scary. Support her in creating a solution that works for her rather than having the parents decide what would work.

They can support the little one in bringing in whatever she needs to get the monster to leave. She can bring in fairies, angels, a monster garbage truck, or anything that she relates to. Let her know that she is more powerful than the monster because she is in a body and the monster is just a spirit. Support her in being curious, rather than fearful, about this monster. Have her describe the monster in detail and maybe even ask the monster what it wants. Then she can tell the monster to leave or get her angels or other helpers to make it leave.

My kids each went through a stage when they were little and were afraid of monsters. We are all afraid of the unknown, so I decided to educate my boys about monsters so there would no longer be the fear of the unknown. We went to the library and got lots of books and dvd's and learned all about monsters. One dvd, "Eyewitness-Monster", was particularly good at explaining the origins of monsters in mythology, folklore and pop culture. I remember both of my boys watching and re-watching that video dozens of times. They became experts on monsters. I also used the same method when they began to fear bugs. It worked. Knowledge is power!

Is the nightlight casting a shadow on the wall?