15 Minutes : Know It : Scary Situations

Are your kids afraid of the dark? My little girl is only 1 1/2 but it is interesting to see her start to get frightened and scared in certain situations. If your kids are convinced there's a monster in the closet, try these possible explanations from Real Simple.

Mystery: Doors open unexpectedly.
- In the winter, the heating system evaporates moisture in the wood, making doors contract and causing them to become unlatched.
- When a door opens or closes, it can raise or lower indoor air pressure, causing another door to move.

Mystery: Banging, Scratching, Footsteps and Rat-a-Tat sounds
- Heating and cooling systems often cause floors and walls to warm up or cool down unevenly. Picture hot air traveling through a duct under your hallway floor.  The section of duct closest to the furnace will warm up slightly faster than the part a few feet farther along the hall. As that first area of duct warms, the floor above it might expand slightly, making a creak. Then the second section of duct warms, making another creak, and so on. The result? Creepy footstep sounds.
- If your radiator has air in its supply or return pipes (it shouldn’t, but that can happen, especially after plumbing work), fluctuations in water pressure can make a rat-a-tat-tat sound.