Last night our 2 1/2 year old son got up a few times for a drink and each time he did, he runed on his bedroom light before coming to our room. Then once when my husband let the dog out he saw that he had turned iton again, but was in bed sleeping. When I opened his door this morning his light was on again.

I wonder if he has all of a sudden become afraid of the dark...I have heard that kids at this age sometimes develop fears of familiar things out of the blue. Anyone experience this?

Actually, right when my dd was that age, she began to actually tell me that she was afraid of the dark... She's a big talker and has no inhibitions about expressing herself :wink: Anywho... she would run to me when a room was dark and tell me "Mommy, I don't like it, it's dark" She'd never had a problem before. It just popped up one day and she's about 3 1/2 and is still a little afraid of the dark although not as much.

Our dd started doing that about the same age, but she was turning on the light and then playing. We got her a night light that she picked out, for her room and she hasn't done it since.

Last year when my DH and I got married, we moved, that was an awful time with my son - all the changes at once just too overwhelming. During that time, he developed a fear of the dark and we had to leave his door open with the hall light on and about 4 nightlights in his bedroom for him to stay there all night.
It took a few months, but did eventually go away. I think his was due to all the changes taking place. But give it time, I'm sure it will go away, if not, at least he still wants to sleep in his bed with the light on and not in yours!

I have almost 3yr old boy who has just recentlystarted the whole afraid of the dark thing. We got him 2 nightlights for his room, which has seemed to help a lot. But what I also started doing was telling him that with Jesus in our hearts we don't need to be afraid. The other night when I was lwaving his room after saying a goodnight prayer with him, he stopped me and said "Mommy, I'm not scared with Jesus in my heart." He still has his nights, but talking about Jesus always calms him down.