If you have little ones at home, you are no doubt getting ready for Halloween tomorrow. But while this can be a fun holiday, it can be scary for the youngest children. What are some things you should say, and what are things they should not be exposed to? The older kids want to be scared out of their wits. But parents need to be careful about what they expose the younger children to, and to explain the difference between what is real, and what isn’t. Freddie Kruger might not be real, but even to tweens, he’s disturbing; heck, he’s even disturbing to adults. And to little children, he’s definitely not something they should be exposed.
Dr. Pio Andreotti, psychiatrist at Long Island College Hospital, says, “Halloween is a big time for horror movies and scary movies and parents like to watch them and put them on and then forget that their three year old might not understand that what they are seeing is not real.” Dr. Andreotti says be especially careful about haunted houses and exposure to people in scary costumes.
But sadly, some parents push kids into situations that are still scary to them. “I would really like to say that it is important not pressure kids into exposing themselves to things that they are afraid of, what it tends to do is make the children more anxious. And it is important parents don’t punish a child for being afraid, when you punish a child for being afraid it sends the message that their feeling are inappropriate,” Dr. Andreotti states.
Diana Sullivan is making Halloween fun for 10 year old Daniel and four year old Dominique. “Sometimes some of the folks will try to make it scary with the scary sounds, and she will look from afar for that, she keeps her distance but stays pretty close to my side,” ays Diana. Daniel is just now getting into the scary stuff.
“This is the first year where he wants a scary costume like Freddy Kruger or one of those but he in the past had a star wars makes that changed the voice when it spoke and it scared her,” says Diana. There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of ghosts and goblins, and long as it’s in moderation. Dr. Andreotti says if a parent really fears that their child is excessively fearful and that they are not managing their anxiety well, they should seek help from a medical professional who can give them more specific advice about their child’s needs.