When a Child is Scared to Go to Bed

Quite often a child you are babysitting for will refuse to go to sleep because he is scared. For most younger children you can cure this problem easily enough, and for the older ones, there are things you can do for the time being.

Scared of the Dark: This is probably the most common reason children are scared to go to sleep. They are afraid of monsters, shadows, things-under-the-bed, etc. If the child is five or under, here is what you can do. Make an anti-monster spray. If you are babysitting at night for younger children, this is a good thing to carry with you in your Mystery Bag. Take a small spray bottle (It can even be an old perfume bottle with a spray top) and fill it with water. Add a drop of cinnamon or a drop of light perfume to make it smell interesting. You can tell the child that this is anti-monster spray, or monster be-gone, whatever you want to call it. Hand it to the child and let him spray it all over his room. Be sure to warn him not to spray it directly on anything or it won't work. It only works if you spray it in the air. This way they don't ruin anything in their room by soaking it. They will be able to smell it in the air, and this makes it a bit more convincing. Then tell the child that they need to go to sleep now, and the anti-monster spray will keep all the bad things out of their room.

You can also make a keep-away box. Just take a piece of paper and fold it into a box. Construction paper works best. You can decorate it with glitter or other things to make it more believable. You can even make this with the child previous to bedtime if you want. Then, at bedtime, "activate" it with the magic words. These could be "monsters gone night and day, keep all bad things far away" or even abracadabra if you want. Whatever suits you. Then place it in the center of the child's room and let it do its work. The child will feel safe, and the parents will be happy because their little one is asleep when they come home.

Older children are a little harder to convince. They don't buy into the spray or things of that nature. You have to be more reasonable with them. Have them take a tour of their room with the lights on. Let them leave the lights on while they fall asleep. You can tell them that you will turn the lights off for them after they are asleep if they like. If the house is large, and the bedrooms are far from the living room or wherever you would normally be, offer to stay nearby. If the bedroom is upstairs, offer to sit at the top of the stairs or in another room until they fall asleep. I did this for a charge that I sat for regularly who was having trouble with the dark. Let them know that once they are asleep you will move back to where you normally would be, but that you will stay with them until then.

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