What Frightens Your Child?

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 170, 8 October 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

What Frightens Your Child?

The Horror of Unnatural Fears ... Explaining Away Terrors . . . Avoid Handing On Your Own Misgivings. MANY parents assume that the fears of children are instinctive; but modern research tends to prove the reverse, says a London writer. Young animals have been shown to view their natural enemies with unconcern. The fear of them comes later through the reflected fear of more experienced animals. Unnatural fears can be created in animals just as in children. Tcliekov tells how his uncle used to show a young kitten a mouse, and because it would not chase it, thrash it. This was done for some time, with the result that ever afterwards the kitten, even when a grown cat, would flee in terror at the sight of a mouse.

Not a Natural Fear A child’s fear of the dark is not. as many suppose, a natural fear. Often what the parent regards as fear at first is only an objection to the inconvenience of darkness, and before one realises what has been done something has been said about “not being afraid of the dark,” and so darkness is associated with fear. Discover the Origin When fears are noticed in children parents should make every effort to discover how they originated, and always treat them with respect. To belittle a fear leads to the suppression of the feelings by the child, and the effects of such suppression are far reaching. Bet the child feel that it can express its fears and dislikes freely without running the risk of ridicule. Afraid of Moonlight My own child became alarmed at the sight of the moon and also by shadows. Unable to discover how these fears arose, we showed how useful the moon was. It made the country lanes light at night. And when there was no moon we expressed in his presence the wish that it would shine and help us to find our way about. His fear disappeared at once, and “Mr. Moon” came to be regarded as an obliging friend. Shadows Shadows worried him for a long time. The sun he liked, so we approached the matter through the reflections of the sunlight in a mirror. We made “white shadows” of the sun dance on the floor and walls while he tried to catch them. We waited until one evening he asked us to “play

the W.K.A. was appealing against the judgment. This revived the interest of the Press, and W.K.A. got his picture in the papers all over again. The judgment was reversed, and Peter and Anne didn’t get the compensation after all. The presiding magistrate delivered them a lecture on Jay-Walking, the Evils of, How to Prevent, and their friends sent them a wreath tied with black crepe, and a card which bore the legend. “Their end was peace. . . .” But the W-K.A. received a great ovation on the stage of Frivolity, where he was playing the lead in that witty musical production, “Bits and iPeces.” And the “Daily Gale” got quite worked up in an editorial headed. “The Menace to the Motorist,” the menace being people like Peter and Anne, who went about getting themselves run over, or nearly run over, and then sued for compensation. And that left Peter and Anne still at the end of their financial tether? Not a bit of it! You see, dear, crusting reader, the value of publicity being what it is nowadays, the claimant and the defendant got together out of court and talked things over. The play in which that, well-known actor was appearing was not doing as well as could be wished, and people were not flocking to see the W.K.A. as they should, and that bit of publicity over the case had begun to liven things up; it seemed a pity to allow all this useful public interest in the affairs of the W.K.A. to die out. He proposed to 'appeal against the judgment, therefore, and if Peter would admit that his arm was not as badly injured as he had thought it was, and Anne that her husband was habitually careless about crossing roads . . . well, anyhow, even if the judgment was not reversed, it was a continuation of this helpful publicity. ... If the judgment was reversed, and Peter and Anne didn’t get the five hundred pounds after all, of course he would compensate them out of court, for, as it were, “obliging him” - . .

which he did, only of course that was a little private affair, and “not for publication.” And Peter never told anyone, not even Anne, that he had recognised the occupant of the car, and stepped under it deliberately as a last resource with something very like all this in view.

white shadows.” We explained that we couldn’t play white shadows when the sun was not shining, and so we made dark shadows from the electric light. Once he realised that he could make these with his own hands his fears were banished. Noises Noises are perhaps the basis of a child’s earliest fears. Fear may not enter into it at first; it may simply be that certain noises, loud and highpitched specially, annoy, and then fear comes in anticipation of the noise. One can readily understand a child’s dislike and fear of thunder. Parents should do all in their power to avoid their own fears being transferred to the child. Children are very sensitive to atmospheres, and where adults are dreading the coming of thunder, children instinctively sense the danger. Every effort should be made to avoid this. Speak of thunder as a pleasing relief from the hot and oppressive weather which precedes it. One mother, while dreading thunder herself, taught her three-year-old to regard the noise as “Mr. Rain knocking to come in.” The lightning was “naughty Mr. Rain flashing on the sun,” as the child himself sometimes did with the electric light. To that youngster thunder has become a game. And the mother, incidentally, has largely overcome her own dislike of thunder by the effort. After a heavy thunderstorm avoid conversation before children, as references to damage and deaths from the storm will undo all the efforts taken to avoid these unnecessary fears.

OLD THAMES GIRLS ASSOCIATION'S FIRST YE7^R The Old Thames Girls’ Association held its first annual meeting in the Pitt Street Methodist schoolroom last week, Mrs. W. R. Wilson, vice-patron, presiding over about 200 members. """ The report and balance sheet recorded a very successful year. The occurrence of the Thames Diamond Jubilee had been used by the association as an opportunity to commemorate old acquaintance by the presentation of £ 300 to the Thames branch of the Plunket Society to endow a room in their new building as a perpetual memorial to mothers and fathers of old Thames girls. The following officers were electedPresident, Mrs. Alfred Oldham; secret tary, Mrs. W. R. Woolley; vice-presi-dents. Mesdames Craig, Lambourne, Hirst, Ivicks, Clark, Thorburn Reid Mahony, Offer and McLachlan; vicepresidents for life, Mesdames J. Ambury and H. H. Adams; committee, Mesdames Rmght, Priest, Brown Redfern, Batson, Jeffrey, Elvidge, White Dawson, Addison, Black, McClennam Brough, Thorburn, Thompson, Reid Byrne, Howard, and Misses Farquhar’ Bridson, Clarkson, Guthrie, clrnie,’

Next time you make doughnuts, try adding shredded coconut and rolling the dough thin. These make an able change from ordinary doughnuts and, if cut small, are especially nice* for afternoon teas and parties