Family Tips

Everyone, the youngest child and every oldest adult, experiences anxieties and fears at one time or another. But with children, such feelings are not only normal, but also necessary. Facing anxieties can prepare kids to handle the unsettling experiences and challenging situations during the life.
Anxiety usually occur when there’s no obvious threat to a person’s safety or well being, but the threat feels real. Anxiety forces a person to want to escape the situation as soon as possible. However, a little bit of anxiety actually helps people stay alert and attentive.
Having fears or anxieties about certain things are helpful also for kids, as it makes them behave in a safe way. For example, a child with a fear of fire would avoid playing with matches.
The nature of anxieties and fears change with age and development:
Babies who are afraid of strangers, cling to parents when they meet people they don’t know.
Toddlers of 10 to 18 months feel separation anxiety, becoming emotionally depressed when one or both parents leave.
From 4 to 6 children often have anxiety about monsters and ghosts.
From 7 through 12 kids often have fears that reflect real events that may happen to them, such as bodily injury or natural disaster.
With the age one fear may replace another. Some fears may concern only one particular kind of exciter: a child may want to pet a lion at the zoo, but scare stiff of going near the neighbor’s dog.