My 2 year old is scared of a ghost!

It started the other day---but it's getting worse----this morning he was in his playroom and I literally walked to the kitchen and he came running in so fast crying he saw a ghost! What do I tell him? I came into the room and said there were no ghosts and he told me it went outside. I don't even know where he got this from---usually if he watches TV I am in the room with him so I would have known if there was a ghost (does nick jr even have ghosts?) How do I handle this?

Re: My 2 year old is scared of a ghost!

Wow!! no advice but that is strange coming from such a young child. Is he in daycare or school of any kind. Maybe ask the caregiver or teacher??

Re: My 2 year old is scared of a ghost!

DS is suddenly afraid of ghosts too, in fact he woke up last night at 4:30 afraid of ghosts.

He wont walk up the stairs of the house if the lights arent on upstairs and once the lights are on he goes "ok, no ghosts"

I have NO IDEA where he learned it from. The only time I ever remember him hearing about ghosts is in the short film, Mater and the Ghostlight which is on the Cars DVD. But there is no actual ghost, they dont show a ghost, they just use the word and trick Mater into thinking there is a ghost light by hanging a lantern off his truck. So I dont know how he would apply that at home and actual ghosts. Its so weird.

Re: My 2 year old is scared of a ghost!

To me, it's the same thing along the lines of "monsters" so maybe this would work for you.

I'm not going to tell my kids there are no monsters in this world because...well..I think there are some people out there that are monsters. So I told them that there are absolutely no monsters allowed in our house. If they see one, you should tell them that mommy & daddy said no monsters - not even the nice ones - are allowed in the house. Tell them to go down the hall & make sure they shut the door on their way out.

At 2-3 years old, what mom says goes so they weren't afraid of the monsters anymore because they felt that I was in charge.

Re: My 2 year old is scared of a ghost!

My DS is afraid of monsters, specifically the Cookie Monster. We gave him a bottle of Fabreeze (with mostly water in it) and told him it was from his Doctor and he can spray before bed. Worked great - he sprays all over, and wipes things down with a washcloth. It was a little dicey when he actually asked his Dr about it, but luckily he played along and when we explained after he said it was a great idea to empower him to conquer a fear.

Where he got ghosts from though - maybe a TV show or daycare? If you watch Max and Ruby there is an episode where they tell ghost stories at a Bunny Scout meeting and then Max scares all the girls...maybe that? (Please, no comments on how sad it is that I know this one so well...:))

Good luck!

Re: My 2 year old is scared of a ghost!

OMG we're going through the same thing now! He doesn't cry but he'll run from another room and yell "Mommy, mommy, a ghost, a ghost"! Freaks the living daylight out of me! I don't know what it is...it seems to be some sort of a developmental thing since a lot of our 2 year olds are going through this! Maybe its something they're picking up from the TV, but I don't see which show or how...

Re: My 2 year old is scared of a ghost!

Re: My 2 year old is scared of a ghost!

get some ghost spray (aka febreeze) and let him spray it in the room to ward off anything scary

worked for miki when there were monsters in her closet

Re: My 2 year old is scared of a ghost!

There is also a Thomas episod ewhith a ghost train, and a Noddy episode about a "ghost"

Re: My 2 year old is scared of a ghost!

A lot of nick jr stuff does have ghosts on it I noticed. One night my son had nightmares about ghosts and then I realized before bed he had played a Blues Clues game that had ghosts on it. Even little blue has ghosts!!

My son is 2.5 and has fears here and there and one includes ghosts. But he watches tv and plays video games and sometimes plays ghost hide and seek with his older brother where they jump out and say boo to each other and pretend they are ghosts so I know where it comes from. He also once told me look mom burgular...and pointed to my front door when we were home late alone one dark night - scared me to death...haha...cause that is my own fear.

As for ghosts, I keep telling him they aren't real and there is no such thing, make it into something funny and he usually quickly gets off subject because that is his personality. My older son did this with monsters at about the same age and luckily it was short lived because he doesn't get off subjects easily, dwells on it and has major nightmares. I use to say monsters are good like Elmo and Cookie monster and I never met a bad monster - was easy for him to be ok with it since I knew he didn't watch anything too strange at that point and couldn't pick up much worse. I'd also spray a air freshener that smelled like oranges and tell him monsters don't like oranges when he'd get scared to go in his room or something like that.

Re: My 2 year old is scared of a ghost!

Actually the ghost bunny episode was on Max & Ruby last night, so maybe that is where he got it from. We do the same thing w/ a spray bottle of water & a fly swatter (don't ask). Seems to work