Mommy vs. the Monster

I just had a knock at the door. It was a friend, stopping by to pick up Arielle to play with her daughter. I wasn't at church yesterday, because I haven't been feeling well. My friend wanted to give me a break by taking one of the kids.

Isn't that just so sweet and kind? You know, I've never had anyone do that for me before. I am so lucky to have a friend like her!

Last night, Arielle wouldn't go to sleep because she was afraid of monsters under her bed. That's been coming up every so often lately, and it's been a real problem soothing her and convincing her she's safe. I ran across an idea somewhere (I don't remember just where) of going in and threatening the monsters with my mommy powers if they don't leave.

So, I took the girls' toy broom and marched down the hall, yelling, "Monsters, you'd better get out of that bedroom! I'm going to count to three, and if you're not out of there by three, you're all going to get spankings!"

The girls followed me, all giggles, which increased when I got to their room and started waving the broom underneath the beds and in the closet and corners of the room, yelling all the time at the monsters to get gone.

When I was done, I turned to them and said, "Well, the monsters are all gone! They went home to their mommies, so they wouldn't get spanked."

"Were they crying?" Arielle asked, her eyes wide with excitement.

"Yes, they were," I told her. "They were very sorry they came in your room."

Bed was no problem after that, although Gabrielle insisted on taking the broom to bed with her.

This morning they were up early, but didn't come out of their room right away. I could hear them in there, waving the broom around and yelling at the monsters. "You stay away from my sister!" Arielle hollered a couple of times.

The husband says he thinks that is very good for them, very empowering to a child to be able to scare off a monster on her own. I like positive side effects! All I wanted was to get them to sleep.