The Preschooler and the Dragons

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Once upon a time, there was a preschooler who was afraid of dragons. He saw dragons everywhere! They were in his bed, on the windowsill, in the bucket where he kept his toy cars… everywhere a little boy might want to look at bedtime. So every night before he went to sleep his parents would shoo the dragons out of his room. Sometimes twice!

Preschooler with striped black and white and yellow socks steps carefully next to a stuffed dragon

Hello, my name is Anna and I have a bedtime dragon problem.

All of this started a few weeks ago when we were staying with Grandma and Papa, who live on a golf course. Someone mentioned that the golf balls looked like dragon eggs, and that was that. We tried to rebrand them as “duck eggs” but that didn’t work. We tried to explain that they were, in fact, balls for playing golf. But the idea was there and wouldn’t let go.

The dragons are, of course, an imaginary construction based on his experiences. The dragons are something that he could concretely understand and go back to when bigger, less understandable things were going on in his life. After saying goodbye to Grandma and Papa after spending a few weeks together, moving to a new house, starting preschool, and leaving his cousins, our kiddo had a lot of changes in a short amount of time.

So what did we do when the dragons just wouldn’t go away?

“Sweeping the dragons” is working for us. Kudos to a friend at work who shared this idea from her own childhood. Mom tip: when you’re going through a tough situation, ask around. Help is there for you!

Every night, after the kiddo is in bed and we’ve read books and told two stories, we pick up a book and shoo out the dragons while making a “swish swish” sound. The first few times we did it, this was a spectacle! Wide sweeping motions and impassioned “get out you dragons!” speeches. We would grab anything nearby that would serve as a sweeper – books, empty boxes, baseball hats – and sweep every corner of his room to get the dragons out. The kiddo even learned to do it himself when he felt confident enough, grabbing his trusty construction site placemat and sweeping around in the hallway.

All the sweeping has definitely helped. We’ve been infested with dragons for about six weeks, and while we still sweep the dragons out at night, we don’t have to sweep them out in the morning anymore. Or “smack them with our elbows,” which was a very specific and thankfully daylight-only dragon handling technique. Now, we only have dragons in the house at bedtime. We sweep the dragons out of his room, and make a show of that we’ll sweep them all the way out of the house once we shut the door. He also sleeps with a soft coloring book in case he needs to do any late night sweeping.

We’ve tried a few other things along the way, all of which helped. His great aunt babysat one night, and it turned out she was a dragon tamer. Who knew? So she told the dragons what’s what. We made up songs that make dragons leave. We learned magic words to tell the dragons when they get too close.

If you’re having a dragon problem, grab a broom and make a big spectacle of sweeping them out! It may take a couple of nights, but its the quickest/easiest/cheapest first solution.

If that doesn’t work, there are also some great books for dealing with dragons! One of our favorites is Max the Brave by Ed Vere. Max the Brave is about a kitten who chases monsters. It’s a great choice for learning that things are not always what they seem and that monsters might not be as scary as you think. Bonus points for Max being such a polite kitten.

I haven’t used this personally, but I hear that monster spray can be very effective. These Monster Away sprays on Etsy have wonderful reviews, and are handmade in Flint, Michigan. The shop owner’s story will have you absolutely floored.

Do you have dragons? What have you done to get rid of them? Post your suggestions below!

Photo by Sven Brandsma on Unsplash