Helping our Children Overcome Their Fears

Fear is quite a normal feeling that affects children during their growth and development. It’s a sign that our little ones are beginning to understand the world around them and how everything works. With time and experience, they will come to figure out that what they fear is in fact not scary at all, and therefore, will be able to adapt to the events and happenings of their daily lives.

And since children's fears differ from one age group to another, we have dedicated this article to provide you with a list of common fears children face during their early school years:

Being away from the parents makes children afraid of getting lost or of something bad happening to them.
Ghosts, monsters, and anything bizarre that comes from the wild imagination of a child.
Darkness, being alone at night, and unpleasant dreams and nightmares that seem too real because the child is still unable to tell the difference between what’s imaginary and what’s not.
What is still unknown to them such as fire, thunder or lightning.

Here are a few tips to help our children overcome their fears:

We need to talk to our kids about the things that scare them and give them good reasons as to why they shouldn’t be afraid. For example, we can explain that thunder and lightning are nothing more than natural phenomena that can cause no harm to them.
Playing games can help our little ones face their fears. For example, if a child is afraid of the dark, we can play the “shadows in the dark” game. We can also try reading them picture books at night, to a dim light. With time, they will relate the darkness to pleasant memories and thus feel less afraid.
Keep an eye on what a child watches and the books that he reads. We need to join our children while watching TV from time to time so that we can get to learn more about their way of thinking.

Last but not least, we need to set ourselves to be an example of courage to our children, as they tend to fear and worry about the same things as their parents.