Nighttime Fears

My five year old girl has a fantastic imagination now. Her overactive imagination has led to nighttime fears and this makes it hard for her to sleep sometimes.

"Mummy, I'm thinking about the monster in the show."
"Mummy, I'm thinking about the pencil poking my eye."
"Mummy, I'm thinking about falling in a hole."

Usually I just tell her to think about something nice instead, like a holiday or a toy she likes or about us doing something she likes but after a minute she'd say....

"Mummy, I'm thinking again."

Last night I decided to play along with her ....

My Girl: Mummy, I'm thinking about the wolf in the book coming to me.
MG: Well, then think about mummy chasing the wolf away.
My Girl: Mummy, I'm afraid the wolf will chase you too.
MG: Well, then think about daddy coming to chase the wolf away. Daddy will rescue us.
My Girl: What is rescue?
MG: Rescue means to help someone in trouble.
My Girl: What is trouble?
MG: Trouble means problem.
My Girl: What is problem.
MG: Uh...uh... problem means when you need help.
My Girl: Ok.

(This is usually how our conversation goes. Question after question after question. Its really very tiring to a 41 year old who needs to catch up with beauty sleep. Haha.)

After a while....

My Girl: Mummy, I'm scared the wolf will come back when we are asleep.
MG: Well, you know our house has an alarm. If the wolf comes back the alarm will wake us up and we will all chase the wolf away.
My Girl: Ok.

I think I'll probably try this method again next time.

How do you calm an overactive imagination and soothe nighttime fears? You must be even more imaginative too! Put yourself in your child's shoes and try to imagine along with them, then tell them your story about how you or they can overcome the monster of their fears or their fear of harming themselves or of bad people harming them. Why don't you try it too and see if it works?