jtb@kitc.UUCP (J. Burgess) (08/30/85)
Our neighbor's two-year-old boy has recently become very afraid of rain,
to thepoint that he screams every time it rains even lightly.
The presumed cause (according to his mother)
is several recent violent thunderstorms, but the fear
extends to non-violent storms, as well.
None of my three kids has ever had such a problem, so we
couldn't offer any counsel.
Now I turn to a wider audience. Any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks.
John T. Burgess, Jr.
(so as to not confuse John H. Burgess of Tektronix,
should he be reading this!)
--
John Burgess
ATT-IS Labs, So. Plainfield NJ (HP 1C-221)
{most Action Central sites}!kitc!jtb
(201) 561-7100 x2481 (8-259-2481)todd@scirtp.UUCP (Todd Jones) (09/03/85)
> Our neighbor's two-year-old boy has recently become very afraid of rain, > to thepoint that he screams every time it rains even lightly. > The presumed cause (according to his mother) > is several recent violent thunderstorms, but the fear > extends to non-violent storms, as well. > > None of my three kids has ever had such a problem, so we > couldn't offer any counsel. > > Now I turn to a wider audience. Any ideas or suggestions? > > Thanks. > John T. Burgess, Jr. Is the child hydrophobic? Is it a general fear of water? Is the child afraid of snow and other forms of precipitation?
laman@ncr-sd.UUCP (Mike Laman) (09/10/85)
In article <180@kitc.UUCP> jtb@kitc.UUCP (J. Burgess) writes: >Our neighbor's two-year-old boy has recently become very afraid of rain, >to the point that he screams every time it rains even lightly. >The presumed cause (according to his mother) >is several recent violent thunderstorms, but the fear >extends to non-violent storms, as well. > : > : > : > John T. Burgess, Jr. Try to get the child to take showers with his father or mother. When the child gets comfortable with that, 1) then mention to the child that the shower is water falling from the shower head, 2) rain is water falling from the clouds, 3) then hit the kid with all the good things about rain (flowers/plants need water to grow and stay pretty, ...), and maybe a little cute humor (like rain is how animals take shower). Reinforce the point that rain is just "goody" water. I have a 2 1/2 year old girl, a 13 month old boy and a 3 week old boy and have helped my oldest overcome fears. I find a little silly humor and getting her comfortable in "similar" situations helps her overcome what odd fears she has had. She once hated showers. She got scared if she was up in my arms when in our shower. She had never slipped in my arms or the like. It wasn't a fear of falling; just a fear of showers. Probably the rushing and sound of the water creating a new feeling on her skin that she hadn't ever felt before? She has finally gotten over her fear of "trashmen" (sanitary engineers). When we moved into our "new" house with an alley against the back wall of the backyard, she got scared of the men with masks and the LOUD(!!) truck. I think the loudness really made her feel very uneasy (I know that loud sounds is one of the two basic fears believed (by some) to be inborn in children.) and then the men (happened to be black so maybe she had an even harder time recognizing a nose) had a mask across his mouth and face. We were looking over the fence at the big truck taking away the trash when the driver got out to help the man loading the truck (we had 31 bags of trash from a large cactus we ripped out). He stopped, looked over at us, and said hi. She really got scared. That was the most scared I have ever seen her. I attacked the problem the same way. For a few weeks we would talked about how the neighbor across the street gave the men some cookies ((luckily) by coincidence). That the men wore the masks so they wouldn't breath the "yucky" dust and smell the "yucky" trash. When ever I barbequed dinner, I picked her up and we'd "just happen :-)" to get in the way of the smoke. "See how hard it is to breath that air. Whheewww. That's why those men wear masks. I wouldn't want to breath that air all day; would you?" [ She also has the characteristic of talking about things that bother her. She seems to like to repeat good things about unsettling topics almost like she is trying to make herself a little comfortable with the problem. ] The point is to get them to HELP them feel in themselves why there is no need to be scared. You can talk until you are BLUE in the face. If you don't get them to feel what you are saying to them, you won't convince them! They have a hard(!) time understanding us. You have to give them a similar type of situation that they are comfortable with. Then try to get them to see the similarities. If the problem is simplier, then get to feel comfortable around it (like the fear of the shower). It sounds like you'll need the harder approach of getting them to feel comfortable with a similar situation, then help them "see" the similarity with their scary situation/fear. Then help them confront their scary situation WITHOUT pushing. I'm sorry, for the length of this message, but I do want you to know that I have experience in what I say. I hope you can find this of some use and that your neighbors can tailor it to fit the child and situation. Just don't push. I learned that early with the problem of being scared of showers. For a while, she just watched me take a shower. I'd splash her with a little water; get her giggling a little. Before long she saw the shower didn't hurt me and occasionally, when she was in an adventurous mood, she wanted to come in the shower for a couple of minutes. Sigh. They grow up so fast. That seems like such a long time ago.... Mike Laman UUCP: {ucbvax,philabs,sdcsla}!sdcsvax!ncr-sd!laman
ayers@convexs.UUCP (09/10/85)
> Our neighbor's two-year-old boy has recently become very afraid of rain, > to thepoint that he screams every time it rains even lightly. > The presumed cause (according to his mother) > is several recent violent thunderstorms, but the fear > extends to non-violent storms, as well. > > None of my three kids has ever had such a problem, so we > couldn't offer any counsel. > > Now I turn to a wider audience. Any ideas or suggestions? > > Thanks. > John T. Burgess, Jr. >>Is the child hydrophobic? Is it a general fear of water? >>Is the child afraid of snow and other forms of precipitation? Are the neighbors into rubber? Do they wear swastikas? Is the child forced to run around the neighborhood naked while being beaten with a running garden hose? Do we have too little information to answer this reasonably? blues, II (I may not be wrong, but by _God_, I'll bet I'm not far from it!)
allen@bunker.UUCP (C. Allen Grabert) (09/24/85)
> Try to get the child to take showers with his father or mother...
We had a similar problem with our two-year old twin girls (four years ago).
We only had a shower at the time, and understandably(?) they did not like the
prospect of having the water falling on their head. So, Daddy had to hold each
one in turn in the shower and get them washed. I guess it was good for them,
since Daddy otherwise spent a lot of time up at school finishing his last
three classes.
--
Back on the freeway, which is already in progress,
Allen Grabert (...ittatc!bunker!allen)