Nightmares

Hi Ellie, My three year old is going through the same. If he was not exposed to cartoons, it could be coming from his peers at nursery or your childminder. In my case, my ex partner exposed our child to ill advised cartoons and took him to a ghost ride, he is reluctant to go to sleep ever since. He fears the dark and to be alone. Based on my reads, their cortex is not developed enough to understand logic and to be rational yet, so telling your little one that monsters don't exist won't work. I have opted for reassurance, we go together to check if there is a monster where he thinks there is one. The other thing I go for is to empower him by telling him that the monsters are actually scared of him and me because we are strong, too strong for them. That the monsters are actually scared of us and can't come into the house, that he is safe and in control. This requires multiple conversations, repetitions, I am hopeful that in the long term, this will work. No quick fix I am afraid. Hope this helps a bit.

I am in the same situation . My ex partner plays the Xbox and shooting games reads monster books and no matter what I tell her that’s not the issue apparently so even tho my little girl sleeps most the night over there when she comes to me she’s up at least twice a night and with working I’ve resorted to having her in with me as the broken sleep was killing us both during the day with work and school hope your little one gets better with it xx

Monsters and robots fear is back as the dad keeps on letting ill age appropriate being shown.... So this week, I impersonated the monster in a letter sent to my son. Telling him he was kind and wanted to be my son's friend, that he knew about his fear amd was sending him hugs and kisses. My toddler asked me to send a reply back. I let him chose the wording. The point I had missed was that he needed to tell the monster he was not allowed to come to the house , which was explained in the response. My son saw the monster's kindness as he opted for some kisses and hearts next to our signatures. Letting my son posting the letter to the monster was fun and empowering I think. He loved it. That's where we are at for the moment, I will see how it is developing in the upcoming weeks.

Aww bless him it’s awful when the other side doesn’t co operate … it’s amazing what you’ve done with the letter n tha tho hun :) my little one was up 3 times last night it’s draining and I just don’t know where to go with it tbh xxx

Has she voiced out to you her fears? What, when, why? If she hasn't, ask her to tell u mote about it. Just having her mum listening to her is already great support. If you notice some reluctance, what I do, is bring a teddy bear in the discussion. I do the voice over and my son is more likely yo explain into details to the bear what's bugging him.