I just got through laying down with Michael in his bed.  Generally, each night, when it's time to go to bed, we watch a nite-nite cartoon for about half an hour, then we go upstairs, read a story, then it's sleepy time.  I have to lay down in bed with him because he has this fear of monsters.  Sometimes I only need to lay down with him for a few minutes, but other nights I have to lay down much longer.  Sometimes as long as an hour until he falls asleep and I can slip out without him waking up.  If I do come downstairs and he's still awake, sometimes he yells down for me because he's still scared.  Using logic on him doesn't work at all.  We've told him that monsters don't exist, that they've packed up and moved away, that they burnt up in the fires, but he doesn't listen to anything we say.

We've also tried doing the monster spray method and spray "monster spray" around his room each night to scare away monsters but that doesn't work either.

He has several flashlights near his bed that he can use to see into the dark areas but that doesn't work either.

He has not one nightlight, not two nightlights, not even three nightlights, but a total of four nightlights in his room.  And one of those lights is a string of Christmas lights strung up over his window all year long.  If even one of those lights is out, he has a fit.  Oh wait, he has a little lit Christmas tree in his room this time of year.  Almost forgot about that one.

Now I remember being scared of monsters, ghosts, and aliens as a kid, but I think Michael has it even worse then I ever did.  And I never had any night light.  I sure hope he out grows this though.  Just for his own sanity.  That and to have SOME darkness in his room.  I have no idea how he sleeps wth all that light in his room.

And some nights he gets scared in the middle of the night.  Either I or Super Mega Mom have to go into his room to calm him down and we might even have to sleep in his room for awhile for him to feel safe.

And he had this fear even when he was much smaller.  When he was Kailynn's age, it was a miracle to get him to go to bed.  I had to sit in his room listening to him cry for hours before he went to bed on his own.

At the time, we lived in an apartment with neighbors that liked to bang on the walls and party all night, so Michael always got scared of the banging and loud music.  His room abutted their apartment, so he always got the brunt of it.  Calling the land lord several times over this never seemed to fix it, and eventually we moved out and into our current house where we have no noisy neighbors or close apartments.  Still, he has the fear.  Not sure if this is what started it, but it might be.

Kailynn, on the other hand goes down with no problems and we barely hear anything from her the whole night.  Every so often she'll cry out, but it's probably because she's cold or hot or something along those lines.  She has one nightlight in her room, but it's more for our convenience to see in there when we go to check on her then for her.  She'd be just as happy in pitch black. 

The difference is that Kailynn has always lived here in her room.  She's never had to deal with noisy neighbors like Michael and has always had silence in her room...well, except for hearing her daddy snoring in the next room...and her brother yelling out for daddy or mommy when he gets scared.

So, now I'm curious if this all started with the neighbors and it just carries into the present, or if he just has a very active imagination?  Either way, I still hope he outgrows it eventually.