As a parent, I know that children can have a lot of fears when they’re young. It’s not nice seeing your child afraid of something, so you want to do everything you can to make them feel better and get over their fears.
Below, you will see three common childhood fears and how you can help your kids get over them.
The Dark
It’s very rare that a child will grow up without spending some time being scared of the dark. It’s one of the most common fears out there - some adults are still afraid of it! Being in total darkness can be scary for a young child as their imaginations run wild. They don’t know that monsters don’t exist, they assume that darkness means a monster is lurking around the corner.
The best way to combat this fear is by gradually getting your child used to the darkness. You can do this in a number of ways. For one, you can get a night light that they can use in their bedroom. This is a small light that causes a very dim effect in their room. It’s not total brightness, but it’s a far way from darkness too. Slowly but surely, you can get dimmer lights until they don’t need one at all. Another idea is to get them to sleep in the dark with you a few times. Sleep in their bed or get them to sleep in yours just so they go through the night in darkness. They’ll have you with them which keeps them feeling safe. Progress from here and stay with them in their room until they’re asleep then walk out and go to your room. When they wake up you can tell them they managed the whole night on their own and nothing bad happened!
The Dentist
So many young children are afraid of the dentist, and it’s easy to see why. Dentists get a lot of bad press, and kids think they’re there to cause them harm rather than do any good. So, you’re left with children that scream and cry whenever they have to see the dentist. This is enough to put some parents off altogether and just avoid going there for the sake of their child. Don’t do this, your children need regular checkups to keep themselves healthy!
There are easy ways you can get you children to stop fearing the dentist. Firstly, you can try sitting down with them and telling them that the dentist is there to help and won’t hurt them as long as they keep their teeth nice and healthy. Along with this, you should also be careful and look to take them to a family dentist instead of just a regular one. If they specialize in families, then they’ll have experience with kids and will help make the experience better for your children. Finally, you can do one simple thing which is help take care of your child’s oral health. If their mouth is healthy, then they’ll have nothing to fear as the dentist will have nothing to do at each checkup!
Monsters
Monsters got a brief mention when talking about the dark, but they deserve a whole point on their own. Kids can be afraid of monsters without being afraid of the dark. Plus, they still have this fear of monsters during the day, it just gets worse at night! Children are afraid of monsters because they see them all the time on TV or in storybooks, and they’re too young to realize they’re not real. So, they start thinking monsters are everywhere, and it can seriously freak them out.
How do you help a child overcome their fear of monsters? Well, this is a tricky one as the only real way you can do this is by proving monsters aren’t real. So, it depends if your child believes you or not (hopefully they do!). Monsters under the bed or monsters in the closet can easily be proven to not exist. All you have to do is show your child what’s under there and they’ll see there’s nothing to worry about. As for other monsters that they might think exist, well, things can be harder. It can be difficult to prove that something doesn’t exist when you have no proof. But, what you can do is get them something to ‘protect’ them from monsters. Get them a soft toy or something and claim that it will keep the monsters away and will be their special guardian. Then, your child will feel a lot more comfortable as they think they’re being protected. Then, as they grow up, they’ll gradually realize monsters don’t exist, and the fear will be gone.
Tackle these three childhood fears, and your children will soon have nothing to worry about!
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