Childhood: A Sea Of ​​fears

Childhood is a time of fear like no other. All children are afraid of someone or something. There is no doubt that the states of “terror” and disorientation that human beings can experience in their childhood are diverse and peculiar. Fortunately, most of them are forgotten and left in the past.

In this text we will help you to know many of the fears that a child can develop and, in some cases, the procedure you must adopt to deal with them.

Top childhood fears

Mom, children may be afraid of:

1. Darkness
2. The loud noises
3. The clowns
4. Walking alone (in young children who do not know how to hold themselves well and fall frequently)
5. Animals
6. Stethoscope
7. Separation from your attachment figure (usually the mother)
8. To be rejected
9. Beings created by your own imagination
10. Being around or being greeted by people you don’t know
11. The puppets
12. The nursery (there are children who are bullied by other children in that place)
13. The storms and thunder
14. Doctors and maternal hospitals
15. Stay alone
16. Heights
17. Cartoons and fictional characters
18. Disguised people, even if they are from their own family
19. Sleep (in children who have frequent nightmares)
20. The punishment of his parents
21. New and therefore unknown situations and places
22. Being inside a closed car

Among the aforementioned fears there are some that, generation after generation, are considered the most common in childhood.

Fear of animals

Fear of animals is a fear that arises from an early age and, unlike others, can accompany a person into adulthood.

Although on some occasions there is an unpleasant experience that the child in question had with an animal, most of the time it comes up suddenly.

To combat the fear of animals or a specific animal, it is advisable to talk to the child about the most curious characteristics that it has, highlight its qualities and not fail to mention how beautiful it is, how funny it behaves, the peculiar sounds that emits …

It is essential that you get to know the animal so that little by little it loses its fear. Let’s say: if he is afraid of dogs, read him storybooks, put cartoons on him, and sing him songs that talk about them.

Likewise, the family can buy coloring books, clothes, backpacks or accessories with pictures of dogs.  

Fear of the dark

The fear of the dark is among the fears that can be temporary or last into adulthood. There are many older people who are terrified of the dark and have been carrying this phobia since they were little.

So that your child does not become one of them, we recommend living the problem calmly and above all, patience.

You have to understand it, accept your fear and give it the importance it deserves. However, you should neither minimize their distress nor show concern about the situation. Your child should see that you take this as something normal and that you advise him as calmly as when you explain how to take the coloring pencil.

Never force him to confront this fear abruptly.

Anxiety of separation from your attachment figure

The anxiety of separation from your attachment figure is one of the fears typical of childhood that is forgotten over the years and remains only in the past, except in exceptional cases.

As the child grows and becomes independent, his attachment figure ceases to have value for him (we speak of value in the sense that she is the one who sleeps, feeds, protects, cleans, pampers … and whenever the child is reaching their autonomy and doing this on their own).

This fear is gradually cured. At first, no child feels comfortable if mom suddenly leaves him with a “stranger” in daycare. But with time and patience it is overcome.