The list seems to be endless when it comes to the things that haunt children. Their fears can vary from the major ones to some that seem baseless to elders. Children can be afraid of anything like the darkness, loud voice, too many people, water, spiders, and many more. No matter how stupid and invalid parents and other elder people find those fears to be, but for a child they are quite real, and they scare the hell out of them.
Here, parents have a big role to perform. They are the ones who can bring out their child from all those fears that hamper their well-being. Parents are supposed to take the fear out of children’s mind and heart and ensure it never returns. A daunting task needs a meticulous planning and an effective implication. Parents first need to understand that they cannot make their child fearless in a matter of a day. It is an ongoing process, a systematic approach.
Parents should understand the condition of their child and should assure them that they can help them to get over their fears. Do not rush and take steps slowly, never try to make fun of their fears, and behave as your child wants you to behave like. Following are some steps, which every parent dealing with such situation can follow and bring their child back to a normal, fearless state.
Rate your child’s fear
It is of paramount importance to find out the depth and the seriousness of the fear your child has. For this, you can make a scale ranging from 1 to 5 or 1 to 10, which you can use to mark their fear level. For much smaller kids, you can prepare some smiley and sad faces that show variations of fearful and sad faces.
Now ask your child to pick a sad face that depicts them accurately when they are confronted with their fear. The face picked up by them will show how intense their fear is, and accordingly parents can devise the strategy to take them from a fearful state to a fearless state.
Make your child write fears
The next step is to make your child write down a list of his fears. Also, ask them to write the reason that makes them fear the objects and things they mention in the list. The older children are in a better position to explain their fears, whereas the younger ones cannot express themselves clearly in words. Therefore, it would be better if you ask them to draw their fears. After all the fears are expressed, ask your children to rate all fears based on the scale that you made for them.
Research
Parents should put in all efforts to find out that why their child has a fear of whatever they mention in the list. Suppose the child is too scared of a dog, probably the child has seen a dog bite someone else, or he himself has had a bad experience with a dog. He is afraid of the dark, as his friends have told him that monsters prevail in the dark. Once you know all the reasons, you can easily prepare a strategy thereafter.
Fix it
Parents can tell children their own fears, which they have conquered with time. Make them feel that they are very brave and they can conquer their fears with a little effort. Parents are supposed to tell all good things about the thing that dreads children. Suppose your child is damn afraid of the dogs, you can show them some clips in which dogs are doing funny things, and you can show them the friendly dog in the neighborhood.
