Ask any adult what is the biggest thing keeping them from going after and achieving their dreams and a vast majority will tell you FEAR. One of the qualities of the ultra-successful is that they do something almost daily that scares them. In a scene from the movie Apacolypto (2006) a Mayan father sensed trouble in his son after another tribes‘ village was ravished. He stopped his son and said those village people had “deep rotting fear”, and that “fear is a sickness, it will crawl into the hearts of anyone that engages it.” So how do we teach our children not to fear. I don’t have all of the answers but here are some things I am doing with my 3 year old daughter.

We play with bugs: During the summer we were at the park and she saw a dragonfly. She went absolutely ballistic. I saw that as a teaching moment and stopped her in her tracks. I asked her what was scary about that bug. Her little three year old mind came up with “its a bug.” Luckily the bug was still there so I grabbed it to show her that it was harmless. She jumped back and ran off to go play with mommy. She didn’t conquer that fear right then and there but little by little she has gotten over her fear of bugs. Now she grabs at all insects (well except ants and spiders, but I don’t blame her lol).

We walk into dark rooms at night: All children are afraid of the dark. As adults we know that it’s all in their little heads. They think monsters will get them but we know better. So I have my little princess verbalize her fear and then see if its true. So far we haven’t found any monsters in the closet and she isn’t afraid of the dark anymore.

The third and most important thing I do to teach my daughter not to fear is (drum roll please….) me and her mother do not fear. Anyone with children knows that their child learns everything from them. Especially at the tender age of three. My wife and I’s daughter have our mannerisms, walk, voice inflection, and everything else. Our actions play the biggest part in her growing up being fearless and not afraid to attempt new things.

Teaching our daughter not to fear is a constant battle because we haven’t arrived yet. I am still learning to do things without worrying about the worse case scenario, or the backlash, or what people would think. I guess in teaching her I am teaching myself also.

Thanks for reading!!!