Monsters

I've never heard of not invalidating monsters. They don't exist. Not in that form anyway. Has she watched something scary recently? Seems unusual for 2. I could be wrong though! It's been a while.

Maybe she needs white noise and it's about the stillness

I think its more about not invalidating how she's feeling when she's seeing "monsters" she's not watched anything or read anything scary, no changes to routine apart from a new sibling 7 months ago. The only monster mentioning thing she has been exposed to is the thats not my monster book. She has red light and a sound machine at night, has done since birth. Also doesn't go to nursery so not picked it up from other kids and isn't babysat by anyone. Im genuinely baffled as to where she's got it from and figured it would probably be a phase that stopped but she's doing it more, shes even drawn a big pink sqwiggle and told me its a monster.

Its probably her imagination starting.

However, you should 'invalidate' the monsters... monsters arent real and you should tell her that. Tell her sometimes our brains see things and tell stories that aren't really there, its called an imagination, but it doesnt mean the things we imagine are real.

My son went through this phrase probably a similar age maybe closer to 3 years. From what i was told and from what has played out with my son it is just a part of their imagination growing. My son mostly wasnt distressed either but he would sometimes say he was nervous for bed time because of monsters. I just started explaining that monsters weren't real, they are just a part of pretend play. Now when he says there is a monster and I say dont worry monsters arent real and cant hurt you he says 'no, silly, its pretend' and then I end up having to act out a whole monster scene with him where the monster turns out to be friendly and just want to give hugs 😅 i think for my son he got it from the tv show 'love monster' which we would occasionally watch together because it has some nice messages in it