Fears of School-Age Children Essay
Fears of School-Age Children The subject of my interview is a 10-year-old boy by the name of Jed Ernest.
The following is the Question and Answer result of the time I spent talking to him.Question 1: Jed, what are the things that you are afraid of?Jed: My parents are always fighting so I my biggest fear is that they will end up divorced and I will not have a home anymore.Question 2: What do you do when you are afraid?Jed: When their fighting gets really bad and my dad is starting to say that he will leave us, I lock myself in my room and cry.
I love my mom but I blame her for making dad angry and wanting to leave us.Question 3: How do you make yourself feel better after that happens?Jed: When their fight is over, I try to make them look at me and make them laugh. I feel much better after they start laughing at me because they forget about wanting to leave each other. Sometimes I can make it seem like they never had a bad fight and we play games.Question 4: Do your parents and teachers know about your fears? Why or why not?Jed: I told my parents about my fear and they always tell me not to worry, I am not a part of the fight. I don’t tell my teacher because she is only in school to teach me. She doesn’t really talk to us after classes.
Question 5: What do your parents or teachers do when you are afraid?Jed: My parents always tell me that I should not be afraid. It is not me they are mad at and I did not do anything wrong to make them fight. They love me very much.
Even if they divorce, I am told that I will be loved and always have a home with them. Even better, I will have 2 homes. One with each of them.In conclusion, I would like to say that certain 10-year-old school children have fears that are more based on the reality of the life they are living instead of the common childhood phobias of the dark or monsters. Although most phobias and fears are treatable, the emotional fears are harder to cure.
These fears affect the child’s social and mental growth. It becomes a disturbing factor as he develops into an individual because he will have a tendency to incorporate the fear as a normal part of his life. In the case of Jed, we cannot desensitize his fear of his parents impending divorce because he needs to learn that divorce is more of an exception that a norm and hurting people emotionally can be avoided and is not a common part of married life.
