Monsters Are Real
I have a 4 year old son who is having trouble sleeping at night because he is going through that phase where he's afraid of the dark and the monsters lurking in his bedroom. He frequently gets up at 3 or 4 am and comes to get me and every time I sit down with him and ask him what's wrong he says, "I'm afraid of the monsters."
Only in my mind
I was plagued by nightmares as a young child and they morphed into terrifying nightmares when I was a teen - so bad I couldn't sleep at night, so I was seriously sleep deprived throughout my last couple of years of high school. I'm 43 years old now and I sleep like a log thanks to MS fatigue and I rarely have nightmares anymore. I spent years convincing myself that the monsters were only in my mind - they weren't real. And I tell my children that as well.
I posted an update about the kids on our family Shutterfly page and my husband's aunt commented on the post about Jacob being afraid of monsters and she said that adults have monsters to contend with as well and I have given that a lot of thought. She is absolutely right. Our monsters follow us throughout life, and they morph and change so they look very different during each life stage.
It follows me and snarls
Right now, my son thinks his light fixture and all shadows in his room at night are monsters. And he has an imaginary monster living behind his bed that he calls a "Nicklet" - but I have monsters too and the biggest one I call "MS" - it follows me around and snarls at me from time to time. We never really grow out of that monster phase, do we? We just learn how to tame the monsters around us and power through the fear.
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