The Octopus... Bad Mom story #655

So since I am confessing bad mom stories, I think this one is worth while. Somewhere, some how Anna picked up this fear of "the octopus". She has completely made it up in her mind that this octopus is something to fear. I have explained that the octopus will never hurt her, but she still has this fear. So... we have totally capitialized on it. The octopus have comes in various forms such has horn honks, doorbell rings, taps on the window, phone calls (yes this is true it is quite hilarious). Whenever she starts acting up and I hear some sort of noise, I tell her that the octopus is listening. It is amazing the change of behavior. She will go down for her nap (at 3 1/2) and will tell me to call the octopus and tell her not to come by because she going straight to sleep. And she does. Walmart trips, mall trips, etc are definately more bareable. The way I see it is that this is just like threatening with time outs or early bed times or spankings, which never work, and this does! So tell me what has worked for you?!