I can’t speak to closets, but I’ve heard of Montessori beds being placed directly on the floor. That’d at least eliminate monsters under the bed. I say that as a parent of a child with a bed raised above the floor…

For me, we need the space under the bed for clothing storage. One of the drawbacks of having 2 adults and 2 children in a 2 bedroom home. We need all of the closet and storage space we can get.

If we eliminate the children, then children’s rooms would simply just be rooms

Because we are free to design the space and most peopoe don’t design rooms with that in mind.

Not a psychologist or anything but isnt it healthy for a child to overcome a fear and not just avoid it

i dont know a single child who has the same fears kids in movies do

An enclosed capsule just brings on another fear: fear of closed spaces. Too open and it’s fear of open spaces.

When you buy a house, closets are just there. You could take the doors off, I suppose, but closets are just a thing. As for the void under the bed, that is a feature and not a bug. Yes, it may allow for a fear of what’s under the bed. It’s also an inherent defense against the actual bugs on the floor that would otherwise crawl up the child’s bed.

Basically, the answer isn’t to change the standard child’s bedroom but to instead work around it. Take the doors off the closet if it scares them. Check under the bed every night and maybe put their “bravest” stuffed animals under there for protection. But rooms are rooms. Blocking off a closet and putting the kid’s mattress on the floor is not the answer lol.

It’s a question of resources you have and what you think children should learn to do to grow.

I always told my kids the monsters were in the closet not under the bed. I also introduced them to hand puppets named chewy and Bytee. They were monster ostrich that lived in the closet, there favorite food is my kids which they nip at and the kids all have found it hilarious over the years. Also there was a monkey that slept in the closet when the zoo was closed. I told the kids I was renting out the closet space. Have three kids 13, 11, 4 none of them were ever afraid of the closet or under the bed. Any hint that they thought something was in the closet and I would go full conspiratorial and confirm there is “something” in the closet. That always seemed to work well apposed to denying their fears.

Kid: I’m afraid of Vegetables.

Kids are afraid of being alone in the dark. The monster under the bed or in the closet is just how they communicate their fear.

I had a room similar to what you suggested. No big closets and an elevated bed. But I still got scared sometimes. And the only things that helped were being in a well lit room and or not being alone.

I think fear is an important part of our development, and sanitizing children’s upbringings is rarely the best approach. I love when my child communicates that they’re afraid of something because that gives me an opportunity to guide them through how to encounter and process that fear, and how to continue functioning in life when fear is present (which is always for a lot of people).

Also, for kids who are scared of their closet or under their bed at night, if you remove those triggers I would be surprised if other triggers did not arise. It could easily turn into a never ending game of whack a mole.

If it wasn’t those, it would be something else. There’s always something that will cause fear and it won’t help anything to remove everything that upsets them, especially in preparation for the real world. We see how it doesn’t work very well with overprotective parents who try to “protect” their children from everything. Those kids usually grow up maladaptive to the real world.

But if it’s not under the bed or a closet, it’ll be the jacket on the chair in the darkness or the tree limb in the dark outside of the window.

What happens if the kid goes to a friend’s house who doesn’t abide by these same rules? What happens if something happens to you and the kid has to be put in foster care or with a relative who doesn’t practice the same?

Not everyone has kids.

Did you forget about your teenage years? Teenagers want their own space to hide their uhhh stuff.

I did actually the opposite, unintentionally. But worked. My daughter never had a problem with a dark void somewhere. She loved to hide there.

We did for my daughter. She then got scared of door knobs because they “had eyes”. They find something else lol

Maybe we don’t need to round every sharp corner we can find. I doubt anyone is traumatized for life because there was a closet in the room as a child.

It is an opportunity to bind with your child. Make them face their fears playfully. Probably will strenghten its braverity.

Also, any matress needs air circulation beneath it. Otherwise it will get warm, stinky and very dirty.