why are children afraid of monsters?

how do they find out about them?

I don't know but it sucks. I have distinct memories of trying to fall asleep and knowing that those fuckers were going to run up on me. It got so bad that my parents actually made something called "Monster Spray" and would run around my room spraying this shit in my closets and under my bed so that I would fall asleep.

Years later I found out that "Monster Spray" was nothing but water and my pediatrician was behind the whole charade. This is where my hypochondria stems from. Doctors are all liars and crooks and since I was 4 they have been assholes to me.

Don't lie to your kids. Just go buy a wheelbarrow and start brewing up some real, potent ass "Monster Spray" for your little ones.

Seems like human nature to invent & fear monsters as soon as you're old enough to imagine them. Of course it doesn't help that monster imagery & stories are nearly unavoidable.

Yeah, I mean have you ever looked into complete darkness? It's fucking terrifying and makes you realize that not having echolocation is something very much lacking for the human condition.

yancy wrote:Seems like human nature to invent & fear monsters as soon as you're old enough to imagine them. Of course it doesn't help that monster imagery & stories are nearly unavoidable.

This sounds right to me. It's hard to avoid. Even seemingly harmless books like Frog and Toad have stories about nightmares, ghosts and monsters.

Maybe it's a coping mechanism to channel real and confusing feelings of fear and helplessness into a creature of one's own imagination in order to control or process those feelings. I don't know.

yeah, parents, concentrate on educating your kids about the horrors of war, pestilence and pederasty so they don't waste time worrying about silly boogiemen.

wp64 wrote:Yeah, I mean have you ever looked into complete darkness? It's fucking terrifying and makes you realize that not having echolocation is something very much lacking for the human condition.

Yeah, this is definitely what I was always thinking, when I was four.

Miniboss has taken to leashing up our geriatric aussie shepherd to his bedpost at night as a front line defense against monsters.

jr could take or leave monsters. but any bugs that he sees he freaks out about. this may be a long, long summer.

reuben wrote:Even seemingly harmless books like Frog and Toad have stories about nightmares, ghosts and monsters.

"The Shivers" is one of jr's favorite Frog and Toad stories.

Last night he woke up screaming from a nightmare for the first time and it took almost 20 minutes to settle him back down to go to bed. I felt really bad for the little dude. When I asked him about it this morning he said it was something about a "crocodile eating mommy."

Heavy shit right there.