My Baby Full of Strange Thinking

ALL children -at least 99.9% of them go through a scary, scared and monster/ghost phase! It doesn't matter if they've ever seen tv or a movie -they still know and understand these concepts by age 4. He's the perfect age for it! My 4 year old doesn't have terrible fear or anxiety too often about it, but sometimes he says he's scared of the dark windows or he hears a monster outside of his window. Creepy-looking shadows at dusk, night and dawn can send them over the edge. It's completely normal!

It is called the magical phase. Monsters , dragons , princesses and other fairytale creations are very real to kids that age. It is totally normal for that age and they will grow out of it.

It's a common stage most kids go through. Normal sounds the house makes all the time just seem spookier and scary at night. When he can't figure out what the cause is, his imagination fills in the blanks.
When we moved it took 6 months for my son to adjust to the sounds the new house made. I had to explain every night if I had the dish washer, washer or dryer running. Just the heat/AC blowers coming on/off or the thunk of the ice maker in the freezer was enough to spook him.
Night lights, monster spray, white noise, and a stuffed animal for bedtime are all great for giving him a feeling of protection and comfort.

This is not strange for a four year old. Help him scare the monsters away. Give him tools, like a pretend monster scaring away thing.

My son was about that age when he kept telling me he heard monsters outside his window at night. I couldn't it out until I was with him one night in his room and he got panicky and said, "See, don't you hear the monster growling outside!" It was an airplane going over head. The sound was scary to him....and he thought it was a monster!

My best friend growing up thought that sharks lived under her bed (we grew up near the ocean) and was terrified to sleep alone. So her mom bought a spray bottle from the local dollar store, filled it with water and they would spray the "shark spray" each night before bedtime & she would have a peace and finally slept. As an adult she is now a brilliant engineer. So I guess all that creative (crazy) thinking as a child has paid off! Good Luck!

Four year olds have huge imaginations. They don't quite understand reality.
Most of them go through a monster phase.
Leave a nightlite on
play soft music
have monster spray, Lysol is yucky but use a perfume he likes
Announce to all monters that this is a no monster zone house and they are not welcome.
Put up curtains, we had to pull the shades every night
Our monster phase lasted a while. It morphed into the boogie man from next door. Mine just turned 10 and still sleeps with nightights on and the shades shut tight. We have dogs so that helped bit too.

Oh, my son has a lava lamp. Those are cool. You can call it the no monster lamp.

Completely normal. Very age appropriate. Don't try to talk him out of the monster, go along with it. Spraying water or whatever that keeps the monsters away is a good idea. We had a big dog who I told the kids ate the monsters. That worked well, until he died. Then I told my youngest the cats would keep the monsters away.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to look inside a four-year-old's mind? But you realize that they're learning about the world all the time, and thinking about things they don't understand and can't explain - and at this age they don't have a really solid line between fact and fancy.

Plan to be waked up a few times in the night, or dealing with whimsical (I do like that word!) things during the day. It will pass. Go to the library and see if you can get a wonderful book by Russell and Lillian Hoban called "Bedtime for Frances." Frances is very whimsical - and HER parents have to deal with it!

It is a perfectly normal development of a 4 year old. This is the age that monsters start showing up under their bed, nightmares start showing up. It's all normal. Not sure where it comes from, it's there in their imagination. So although it's disturbing for you and him, it's a good sign that he is developing like he is supposed to.

My stepdaughter got very fearful all of a sudden. Turned out she had heard adults talking about "bloody marys" and her friend said it was made with real blood. You never know what weird associations kids make. I would try to reassure him. Offer to go check it out if he thinks there's a monster, let him sleep with a flashlight, etc.

My daughter used to think there were alligators in the trees (every time the wind blew) at that age, I always just considered it to be a good imagination.

This is typical for a 4 year old (who is NOT a baby) by the way.

It's perfectly normal and age appropriate. Not always fun when fears are involved. My son has come up with some things that we can't even begin to figure out where he came up with them.

I went through the same thing with my grandson when he was about 3. We went to the dollar store & bought "monster spray" it was room freshner. But he didn't know that. He killed the monsters & my house smelled great.

Do you remember how it was to be four? Your body is small, so you are not as safe as a grown up, just for that reason.
And who knows- he may think that you say some very strange things, eh?
And maybe a movie you didn't think was horrible still effected him. He is four, after all.
Keep him safe, that is your job, and please make sure he is well fed, no, zero zip zilch nada on the sugar, really none, please.
And please don't invalidate his imagination, he could be the next Steven Speilberg if he isn't made wrong for what he says.
He sounds wonderful. Enjoy him, as I can tell you they are grown in a blink of an eye.
best, k