My Kids Are Irrationally Scared of Bugs

Stephanie:

First off, sorry you are going through this. My son was terrified of everything involving anyone dressed up. So, of course, any time we went anywhere we could ALWAYS count on dressed up characters! Clowns, mascots, face paint, etc. It was awful!!! We had to wait to go to Disney World until last year and even then he was still nervous but old enough to work through it. And, really he is fine with it now. Doesn't love it, but fine with it! Anyways, all kids have what us adults consider to be, silly or irrational fears. What we did was try to find ways to show him that it wasn't so scary afterall. We once had a masked character take his mask off in front of my son to show him he was a perfectly normal person under there. And we tried to pretend at home and read books about characters and discuss them. Maybe go to the library and get some cool bug books to start looking through and focus on the positives of bug friends. Beautiful butterflies, how cool lightning bugs are, etc. Anyway, also I found some articles on the net that were pretty good reads. Maybe they would be more helpful than me. Here's one - http://www.drgreene.com/21_764.html. I just would try reading up on some ways to calm irrational childhood fears and try those techniques until you find some that work for your children. Also, try talking to a counselor at one of the local elementary schools. They will have some good suggestions too probably! Good luck. It's going to be a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggg summer you poor thing! :) I really hope you get some help there! :)

have you thought about going outside with them a couple times, and find some harmless rolly pollies or ants to show them? be all excited and show them how fun outside can be! myself i HATE creepy-crawlies - so i know it would be hard for me - but i have a boy and his daddy is in charge of that! but i really think your kiddos would benefit from seeing you fearlessly pick up a critter or two. even if the oldest freaks out and refuses to come near you, maybe the youngest would be open to it and then the others would follow suit? kids are SO easily influenced by their "peers" (siblings in this case). it's worth a shot! good luck!

Check out some books on bugs, get one of the bug catchers and let them 'take care' of them, talk to them about bugs. How they have families too and how they play an important role in our environment. And defintely let them see you handling bugs. And just dont make too big of a deal about it, from my experience (I was a daycare provider for ten years and now a mother) most kids freak out for the attention, not because they are really scared. I am sure you can tell which with your children-so education and understanding go a long way.

Irrational fears or phobias, are VERY hard to subvert if they are ingrained for a long time. This really needs to be stopped now, before they are grown because it can be really debiliating.

I agree with several of the other Moms, start with pretty, and cute bugs. Butterflies and fireflies are pretty and very harmless.

I had several incidents as a very young child that I still remember involving insects and it took me YEARS to get past the phobias I developed. Once while playing out in the farm yard with neighbor kids, I slipped on the dew covered grass under the yardlight, june bugs ......all over me. On my face, my hair , everywhere! I was about 4 when that happened, to this day I really have to grit my teeth around june bugs. BUT I HAVE to so that my kids aren't afraid of them as well. And they aren't so I guess it worked.

Try starting out with the books and work up to real bugs.