The things we hope to teach our children seem to be countless and I have discovered that just when I think I have overcome one parenting hurdle, immediately following that nice pat on the back, I find another hurdle standing in my way. Fortunately, we live in a day and age where accessing helpful information can be so easy. While it can be hard to rifle through all the information that is available and decipher the good information from the bad information, as long as we stick to our guiding set of principles, we can find some truth and some support in a variety of wonderful places. I always like to share some of my favorites…especially from the list of things that we never even realize we will face as parents.
Children’s fears are ongoing. How do we teach our children self-soothing, positive self-talk, how to recognize their true feelings, and, most importantly what to do with their fears to become better and more resilient humans? My 13 year old son’s fears have shifted…gone are the days of monsters under the bed. I am discovering that helping him develop his own set of guiding principles becomes increasingly important with each passing day. The Fred Rogers article below gives some helpful insight to helping young children through their fears.
Enjoy,
Britney
Parents want their children to be afraid of some things, because fears can keep children from doing dangerous things. But we don’t want our children to develop irrational fears that hold them back from doing healthy things, sleeping well, and making friends.
Part of our “job” as parents is to help our children feel safe and secure. Sometimes it can be very frustrating to try to explain to a frightened child that a monster or witch or some other imaginary thing isn’t real. We adults have already learned that, read more here.
