Toddlers have irrational fears for instance, fearing the barber mistaking those who wear white coats for doctors and memories of painful injections come flooding their minds. Some might develop a phobia for a particular person and wail when they approach them.
My daughter was scared of the garbage truck. We had no idea and until now, I still couldn't explain why my daughter had an aversion to the garbage truck. She even had a name for that - bumba. Maybe it is a quirk in the minds of the toddlers that they are inventing their own bogeyman. Another phobia of my daughter is a person who speaks English. Yeah, she would hide when she sees a fair skinned person who speaks in English.
I remember my granddaughter used to be scared of the hairdryer when she was tiny. She didn't like the sound it made and just the sight of it would make her cry. I always had to dry my hair when she was asleep!
My son is afraid of the dark and he insists on me accompanying him while he goes to the bathroom at night. I have to bear with it and keep assuring him that there are no 'monsters' that he keeps imagining of. I guess it will go away in time as he grows up.
Child is too curious and inquisitive for he needs something to be explained for him to understand it. Weird things may create something for them to get afraid of. It is their instinct or tendency to afraid of something new to them which is too big, unusual, and the like. They need to be guided and to be told what is real, what is bad and what is not. If they are left for them own, it will develop as their irrational fear or phobia.
Fear of the barber was a really funny one to have to get over, but some of the others tend to linger for a little bit. I am not sure I ever got over my fear of going to the dentist.
My baby brother is afraid of heights, the dark and has this persistent fear of being alone. It was very hard on him on the first day of school. Phobia of heights is a pretty common one though. In fact, I am also very scared of heights. I also used to sleep with the nightlight on when I was a kid.
Talk about irrational fears... My younger kid (already 8!) is afraid of being alone in the bathroom because he thinks that a witch lives in the flushing, loool! Well, not lol, because he always insists that we go with him, what is obviously annoying... We haven't been able to turn this around just yet!
I can relate with this. My son is turning 8, and until now he is afraid to go to the bathroom or be alone in the room, but this fear is prevalent when its dark. He even fears going to the fridge to get some water if there is no one in the kitchen. Well, pretty annoying isn't it? He's afraid that there might be ghosts over places where he was alone. I keep on convincing him there is none, but good luck to me. Anyway this fear is pretty common among young children.
Yep, it's annoying because he doesn't has independence... When I think some fears are about to disappear, new ones appear or others get more intense. For example, even if he shares the room with his 10 year old brother, he's afraid to fell asleep on his bed, so he is there for like 10 minutes, and then has to go to my bed to fall asleep, even if we are not there! The mysterious world of kids.
Irrational fears are quite common in children. I never had that as a kid for a prolonged period of time, only after watching scary movies and tv shows and it goes away rather quickly, it never lasts a day.
Sometimes it is the environment that creates fear on the child like a home that looks haunted, so to speak. A happy and noisy home (with lots of people) is far from creating irrational fear on the child because his mind would be busy with the people especially when the adults are doting siblings or aunts and uncles, the child would definitely be stronger in character.
The blame goes to those who frighten the child just so that it does what it is expected to do. And that is the beginning which sticks for a long time to come.
