What are common, age-appropriate childhood fears?
Age-appropriate childhood fears include separation anxiety from early childhood, such as leaving your child with somebody and your child feels that you feel it. This includes those days of pre-kindergarten when you have to leave you child and both of you are feeling that pull of transition into higher levels of school. Stranger anxieties apply as well, such as when your child is 2 to 3 months of age and they scream when they see somebody that they don’t know because they are used to seeing your face. There is also general anxiety for sleeping. It all depends, but they’re all within the age-appropriate expectations and spectrum and its up to a parent to decide if those symptoms or the severity of those anxieties become significant and meet the criteria of a diagnosable mental health disorder. If so then you’re in a different range and the treatment may be different.
