4 yr old not wanting to sleep in own room

[sr491]

my 4 year old had just recently in the past 5 monthes having problems sleeping in his own room. He started out a few monthes ago saying he was afraid so i layed with him til he was comfotable. Now he wakes as soon as i go to leave the room and cries saying dont leave me, today he told me he was afraid of the Skeltons???? where did that come from???
his room is the only room upstaires at our house till we can get more money to finish our room up there. he absoultly will NOT sleep in his room. last night it was 11:30pm so i finally gave up and told him to come down staires and sleep on the couch that he couldnt sleep in our bed,(i was absolutly exhausted). so he finally did fall asleep on the couch with no problem at all, i have tried to make his room more appealing to him we went out and bought spiderman sheets and a new night lite.......
HELP does anyone have any ideas?????????

[anxiousmomtobe?]

This is just a phase and he will sleep in his own room again.  Keep encouraging him to do so.  So a "banishing the skeleton" ritual.  I would go into my dd room in a cape and scare all the "bad trolls" away.  Don't get frustrated, he probably is genuinely scared.  Give huge praise when he sleeps in his own room.  Set a goal, 10 nights in your own bed and we go see a movie, etc.

[jd1419]

I don't know what to tell you--but let me know if you figure it out.  For I have been going through this for over a year--My four yr and 2 1/2 yr odl will not sleep in their beds unless I am in there.  My 2 1/2 yr old at least when he falls asleep will stay there... my four yr old crawls into bed iwth us all the time--most of the time I don't even know it he just gets in.  We recently bought them bunk beds--did the room in all superman theme--still won't stay in his room.  Yelling at him doesn't work, spanking doesn't work--and me breaking down and crying doesn't get him to sleep there--so I am also trying to find a remedy to this difficult problem.

[tiredbuthappy]

i remember when i was 3 and 4. i was terrified that there were lobsters under my bed.  the only reason i never got out of bed to go to another room was because i was afraid to put my feet on the ground, thinking they'd get me.

i'm not offering a solution so much as a different perspective. when children are that age, they develop irrational fears to go along with their rapidly developing active imaginations. and children at that age have difficulty differentiating between fantasy and reality. i guess the only advice i can offer would be to make sure you monitor everything he watches, since he is probably absorbing those images into his fantasies. (by the way, the villians in superhero shows like superman can be very scary to young children. but they still seem so addicted to the programs!)

[sr491]

thanks everyone for the advise...... i will try it all.... i am hoping it is a phase, it just seems to be a long one. ...... i will try the reward idea, we have tried that with some others issues and it worked just fine....... again thanks and maybe soon i will be able to get some sleep