Ways to help children to cope with fear
If you're the parent of a child who has fears, you may feel like you're going to be searching for the Boogieman all the way through high school.Now that Halloween is almost here, monsters and goblins are lurking everywhere. As a parent, what should you do? Do you spray "monster spray" in the closet? Put a light under the bed?
How about learn to confront the monster?
One expert shies away from "monster traps" and "monster sprays," saying it makes it seem like the parent also believes in monsters. Instead, you can teach your child to deal with the scary things using her imagination.
For example, your child could use an imaginary ray gun to shrink the monster and make it run away. Or, you could incorporate the scary object, such as a spider, into a fairy tale so that the child can see the character overcoming her fears.
Whatever you do, don't just dismiss the child's fears. Although we may think monsters are silly and make-believe, the child may not.
Now if only they could make a fairy tale so that I could get over my fear of bridges, I'd be set!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Michelle 10-26-2006 @ 6:40PM
We have a fear of dinosaurs, for some strange reason. My four yr old doesn't mind them in the house, just in her room at bedtime, so we take a flashlight and shine it on all the dark corners and shoo them out her bedroom door. As long as the dinosaurs go with me, she is fine. Ironically, she has a huge stuffed dragon that sleeps at the foot of her bed to keep watch.
I have a friend who actually has to rush the monsters out the front door each night!
I think if you dismiss their fears, they won't come to you for the "real" dangers in life. We talk about how dinosaurs aren't real anymore, and right now ghosts and goblins are a little scary. But, I want to teach her that I will keep her safe from real and imagined dangers.
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