Fear

My son has never showed any fear towards anything that I can think of. He has been going into the bedrooms and basement with only a flashlight to shine things. When I turn on the light he tells me to turn it off. He says the lights hurt his eyes. He will push a stool to the lights and then pull the chains to shut them all off. The next time I go into the basement I can't see anything.

My 3 year old daughter is developing normally and having the typical scares and carries a security blanket. My son never developed a special bond with a blanket or a stuffed animal. He preferred to sleep next to a pin wheel or a matchbox car because he enjoys spinning things for visual stimulation. That is his security now that I think about it.

If I do not shut the doors behind me, my daughter will yell to "Shut the door!" She is afraid of monsters or something. She is very afraid of the dark. My son thinks it is funny to shut off the light and shut her inside the room. I think I need a social story to teach him not to do that. It scares his sister and he needs a visual aid to help understand.

Spiders also have my daughter frightened. My son does not show terror to something creepy like that and will pick them up.  My daughter will scream and tell him to "Stop that! That's scary!" The nastiest thing he picked up and put in a jar was a centipede. Those freak me out.

I couldn't imagine my life without fear. That would be the life. Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy said, "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself." We can learn a lot from our children.