Things That Go Bump

Being a child is having a Scary Things List that is constantly changing. Come to think of it, that's pretty much the situation for adults, too.

In any event, you will no doubt remember the "Scared To Sleep In My Room, Not Scared to Sleep In Your Room" thing. I have a five-year-old grandchild who is in that phase at the moment, and as much as she loved the movie, Monsters, Inc., it didn't help when the nighttime monsters moved to the top of the list. Bedtime became a royal hassle, and one of her brothers was dutifully camping out on the floor by her bed in an effort to help. Even so, it was clear that a Plan B was needed.

As a nurse, I specialized in maternal-child health, and I remembered a workshop dealing with the things that go bump in the night and three-to-six-year-olds, specifically, using their highly developed imaginations to their advantage. The solution: Monster Spray. Or in this case "Extra-Strength Sweet Dreams and Anti-Monster Mist."

What I didn't remember was how to make the concoction, so I had to scout around for the recipe:

3-4 drops of lavender oil in 6-8 ounces of distilled water.


Actually, I used a little more lavender than that (hence the "extra-strength") because I thought being able to detect the fragrance of the spray would be helpful.

The dh went on a quest for a spray bottle, one a fancy label made with a Print Shop program would stick to. (He assured me later that this was not as easy as it sounds.) After a dedicated search, he eventually found one sized for the new airline regulations. It was perfect for little hands and for the personalized label.

The finished product looked very official, and I made the presentation, complete with instructions for proper use, about ten days ago. Then I made sure not to do any follow-up -- I didn't want to make this any more of a Big Deal than it already was.

Yesterday, her brother -- the one who wasn't camping out on the floor but who could see the writing on the wall and his turn coming -- very happily reported that she'd been sleeping in her room without distress ever since she got the spray, the moral here being, pay attention in workshops. You never know when even wacky-sounding information might come in handy.