Has your child ever stopped doing something s/he used to do very comfortably, either because s/he is unwilling or unable to do so anymore? How do you handle this change?
Do you insist on maintaining the same routine, hoping the child will return to her/his old habits?
Do you allow the child to back off from what s/he is unwilling to do?
How do you build confidence and independence in your child, if s/he suddenly seems scared?
How do you adapt your response depending on the child’s age and personality?
quite recently, we went through a phase of being afraid of escalators, but only the ones that look like stairs. I forget what the other ones are called… the ones that have a fairly smooth and steady elevation..
munchkin has never been afraid of them before, but suddenly she developed this fear of stepping on one and she would literally freeze seconds before stepping on and hold up people… and she wouldnt even like move… would keep telling me “lets go on the lift or stairs…” but still stand there hoping she would have the courage to get on..
at first I just laughed and thought she was pulling my leg… then when i realised she was actually afraid, we would take the stairs or lifts (depending on how much energy I had carrying the tummy up and down the stairs)… but then a few weeks ago, I was with the hubby.. and she was packing it again cus she knew there were a number of esclators she had to climb to get to a place she wanted to go to… and kept insisting we find a lift…
but I was exceptionally adamant to get rid of the fear and told her that both mummy and daddy were there.. we’d both be on each of her side to hold her hand and “catch her” if anything happened… and to just say “Bismillah” and everything would be ok.
She said “Bismillah” and got on… and all was good.
She truely believes in the power of dua I think that helps her more than anything else really..
I think that helps her more than anything else really..