Bedtime Fears: Real or Made Up?

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             Bedtime with kids is always fun, right? (Yes, if you're new here, that is dripping with sarcasm.) Add in some bedtime fears and things become even more interesting, possible unbearable. With some kids, it's easy to tell if they're legitimately afraid of something. Others seem like they're just making things up to stall. Either way, bedtime fears, whether it be of monsters in the closet, the dark itself, or something else entirely, it can be frustrating for both kids and parents.

             Myka seems to be one of those kids that falls into the latter category. One week in the last couple months or so, she started coming into our room in the middle of the night and sleeping at the end of the bed almost every night. She hadn't done this for awhile, so naturally I asked her why she was coming into our room so much. She claimed she was “afraid to be in her room”, but didn't really give a reason why. I know she's not afraid of the dark, plus she has like 500 night lights, it feels like, because grandparents will not stop buying them for some reason even though I tell them she already has some! Ok, ok, I'm getting off topic. That's a story for another time, I suppose.

             A few weeks later, though she stayed in her room half the time and others she came down the hallway and peeked her head around the corner, she started in with “I scared in my room”. The thing is, she didn't act like she was scared. At all. She just stated that calmly and went back in when we put her back to bed. No fits or freaking out like you would expect from a kid who is truly scared, right?

             Then the plot thickened. Myka started occasionally mentioned that she was afraid of spiders when these little episodes would happen and we asked her why she was “scared”. So, we started putting cotton balls with peppermint essential oil on them around her room (This isn't just a made up, placebo thing either like “monster spray”. Spiders really don't like it. I've seen it!) and explained that it would keep spiders away. This seemed to appease her, yet she still brings it up every now at which point we put more cotton balls out.

             So...Does Myka really have a minor case of arachnophobia or is she just making up random stuff as an excuse to get out of bed? I don't know. I really just don't know. As much as I wish this were an informative post, it's more just an anecdote I felt like sharing. Have any of you ever went through this with your kids? Was there anything in particular that seemed to help?