Children experience fear (just as we adults do too) and “being afraid” of all sorts of things is quite common for children. Some children, certainly, are more fearful than others. Still, if a parent taps into his or her intuition, there can be times when a child seems to have “too much” fear—or the fears seem overwhelming, exaggerated or inappropriate. These are times when a parent needs to intervene and try to find out what is really going on.
Often times, you will be able to trace the exaggerated fear to something that has happened. When my eldest daughter was in the second grade, she had a teacher who told the class that every person will experience a house fire in their life time. At first, I could not figure out why she developed a sudden fear and horror of fire, and would not want to go to bed at night for fear that the house would catch on fire. It seemed to come from out of the blue and took some conversations and some stealthy “digging” to get to the bottom of what was going on for her. Once it was out in the open, we were able to work on it and help her get past the newly-developed fear.
You may not know where things are coming from—a bad dream, or seeing a snippet of a scary movie, hearing a story from a friend—there are all sorts of seemingly ordinary daily happenings that can trigger fear in a child. If you are not able to figure out what is going on and the fears and worries just aren’t going away—it is a good idea to get professional help. A counselor may be able to find out what is going on, or what has happened for the child when you cannot.
Newly-developed, exaggerated, or seemingly inappropriate fears in a child should be taken seriously and attended to. They could be a child’s way of coping with something major or signal something else that might be going on. It is our job as parents to be attentive and help our child or children deal with whatever might be happening.
Also: Ask Yourself–Is This Behavior Intentional?
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