Did you ever have a fear of the dark as a child? Or maybe monsters under the bed? While I never feared monsters, I used to ask my family to leave the hallway light on for me at night. There’s a comfort to be felt knowing a source of illumination is nearby during the darkest hours of the night. However, when this comfort becomes a necessity, parents often find themselves having to come up with a solution for their little one. In my case, my parents would turn off the light earlier every night, sometimes when I hadn’t yet fallen asleep, and I eventually became accustomed to sleeping in the dark.
Little Mya, like many children, also had some anxieties associated with bedtime based on stories she heard from her peers in preschool. Monsters under her big girl bed? The Boogie Man in her closet? Those are scary thoughts for her, making getting to sleep on time a grueling task. After weeks of trying to resolve her monster phobia, her father, Aaron Watson, came up with an imaginative yet clever plan to ward off her newly-developed fear.
Since it’s difficult for an anxious child to believe their parent when they inform them that monsters aren’t real, Watson decided to play along with his daughter’s fantasy fear. He told Mya he’d be going to the drug store to pick up a prescription, but not just any prescription: Monster Spray!
Watson had his local Shoppers Drug Mart create a realistic label for his monster spray that read:
“MYA WATSON
SPRAY AROUND BEDROOM AT NIGHT BEFORE BEDTIME AND REPEAT IF NEEDED
MONSTER SPRAY”
The secret ingredient of Monster Spray? “Just water. Once in a while, I’ll put a little lavender it in to make it smell nice. That’s kind of a soothing thing,” explained the father.
While there aren’t any monsters, and the spray doesn’t have anything in it to deter much of anything, Mya truly believes in its power.
With her new monster-be-gone solution, all Mya has to do is use her spray until her fears subside. This leaves the little girl with less fear and a better night’s sleep each night. Mya’s parents also sleep more soundly without waking up to their little one’s screaming or coming into their bedroom in the middle of the night.
Since word got around, other parents, and even Mya’s friends’ parents, are opting for the Monster Spray solution to help their child overcome their nightly trepidation.
Listen to Watson speak about his successful anti-monster phobia spray in a CTV News segment below.
