Hey you...Boo! should you really use the scary monster tactic?

Before Baby A was born, I promised myself I would never use monsters, witches, or even spiders to scare him. We did that with my niece and it worked for a while until she figured out our "scare tactic". So hubby and I decided that we would not scare our baby but rather make him aware of stuff (like monsters etc.). If you think this is a great idea and want to know if it worked, read further.
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Did you really think I could give the 'scary monster' a miss? At 13 months, toddlers know they can get away with pretty much everything. They're constantly checking what they can and are not allowed to do. So no surprise .....we tried but he wasn't buying the 'scary monster'. One day, quite by accident we found that the word "spider" made his eyes grow bigger and stop what he was doing (no surprise as I am mortally scared of all spiders!). So...we continued to use it "occasionally". Does that make me a bad mom? Well not really, as I should not have made such unrealistic promises in the first place. Will he be scared of spiders his whole life? I'm really not sure but I don't plan on using this "scare tactic" forever. I just know he's going to realise what a spider is...really soon and then the game will be over.
So before you go about making a list of things you "will not" do for your baby, think twice. Some of those things can be really hard to keep up to. As for me.... I'm just going to leave it to " spidey" (for now). 😀