Happy Halloween

I was catching up on a backlog of blogs (in the time I don't have at the moment) and saw a link on The Daily Monster to Monster Go Away Spray. The Daily Monster blogger was, justifiably outraged but I had to check it out:

Monster Go Away Spray

Most children both younger and older will at one time or another be afraid of the boogie man, ghosts, monsters, spirits and even the badly behaved house elf. Monster Go Away Spray was created by a mom to help her children get to bed and go to sleep much easier. Simply spray your child's room, the closet, under the bed and anywhere else monsters hang out. You can do this ritual with your child before bedtime or spray their room ahead of time and let them know the coast is clear. Many children have the gift of being able to see the spirit world, so it is important to never tell your child that what they are afraid of doesn't exist. But together you can asks the spirits to leave and create a safe and peaceful sanctuary. A light spray on their pillow will ensure a peaceful nights sleep. Ingredients are all-natural and include essential oil of French Lavender, Roman Chamomile and Italian Mandarin Orange.

This is definitely one way to deal with kids being scared of the dark and things that go bump in the night but I must admit that when the time comes, I will be able to deal with this issue in a more Pratchett-like fashion. I remember reading, I think it was Hogfather years ago and Susan, the daughter of Death, was nannying some children and two issues got raised.
1- the monsters under the kids beds or hiding in their closets were there as they had been created by the parents. "If you don't brush your teeth before you go to bed to horrible XYZ monster will come to get you."
2- Susan's way of dealing with the monsters was to walk in to the room with a large baseball bat (or discworld equivalent) and smack the &%** out of it. When one of the kids came running out to get her

And should we even start on the Monsters Inc take on things? All I know is that I will definitely be taking the 'stand up for yourself' line of approach and hope that any kids of mine are precocious enough to follow my lead. And I guess even better than the ass-kicking approach would be the Daily Monster/Monsters Inc method.