Dear parents, this article will help you understand the essence of the problem of children's fears. You will understand how to help your child comfortably go through an important life period for him. Fear is an emotion that all living beings periodically experience. So is this really a cruel joke of nature, which endowed us with this ability? Of course not. After all, fear has a protective nature; it is a direct consequence of the instinct of self-preservation. Imagine for a moment that your child is completely ignorant of fear: he boldly climbs onto a roof, sticks his fingers into a socket, runs across the road on a busy highway, etc. Agree, a scary picture! So, before you roll up your sleeves to fight fears, Analyze whether your child’s fear has a natural protective component and what it protects him from. The causes of fear can be a variety of circumstances: - a traumatic experience received by a child (for example, a dog bite); - normal maturation (this is how, for example, the natural fear of death appears); - violation of relationships with parents; - mental illness; - other feelings and desires that hide behind fear, like behind a mask (for example, a child is afraid to be alone). Such fear can be true, or it can serve as a tool for influencing parents and controlling their lives. Dear parents, you need to take into account the following factors that contribute to the emergence of fears: First, excessive guardianship. If you try to protect your child from all troubles, anticipate all difficulties, worries about him, then accordingly the child begins to perceive the world as incomprehensible, alien and threatening with dangers. Secondly, adults talk about illnesses and misfortunes. If you are prone to pessimism and you yourself see in life, first of all, troubles and difficulties (which is expressed in frequent conversations about misfortunes and illnesses, both your own and those of others), then, naturally, it will be difficult for you to teach your child to be cheerful. After all, small children perceive the big world through the prism of their parents’ views, and in this case the resulting image does not bode well. Thirdly, excessive tension and misunderstanding in the family. If conflicts often arise in the family or tension and misunderstanding are felt between family members, then this directly affects the emotional well-being of the child, including the strength and number of fears that arise. The same applies to the situation of parents’ divorce. Fourthly, parents’ lack of confidence in their educational actions. If you behave too gently, all the time, doubting the correctness of your actions towards the child, then this also adversely affects his development. For the psychological well-being of children, you need to be a kind of fortress that confidently limits the scope of freedom, and at the same time, reliably protects. Otherwise, the child develops internal “limitations” in the form of fears. Fifthly, lack of communication with peers. In children who have the opportunity to play with peers, fears are less likely to reach a pathological level. This is probably explained by the fact that in joint games, children of the same age involuntarily turn to the topic of the fear that is most relevant to them and, thus, give free rein to their emotions and at the same time receive group support. So, before you start working directly to eliminate your child’s fears, try to identify all the circumstances that may influence the occurrence of this emotion and take appropriate measures to change them. Read about the age-related dynamics of fears, ways and methods of working with them in the following articles devoted to this problem..