From the author: Children's fears and mother's fears, how to understand who is afraid of what and why. Do you want to know what parents come to a child psychologist with? Often with the fact that something is wrong with their child... For example, a child is afraid of something... water... fish... strangers, adults... other people's children... he is afraid that the toy will be taken away... He is afraid that they will offend you on the playground.. may be afraid of midges.. mosquitoes. sleep alone.. Baba Yaga... the wolf.. drink from a glass glass.. teachers.. punishments.. afraid to swim... afraid of the dark.... List I could go on. Fears, of course, are different. There are also those that are simply vitally necessary to survive according to age (fear of the dark, fear of death, fear of the hospital and injections) and here a timely visit to a psychologist will be an effective support for parents and the child. Today the story is about others fears. About fears that do not exist for a child, but the mother sees them and constantly warns against them. The logic here is the following - if the child is afraid, then he needs to be protected, constantly be there, warn that “something” may be unsafe all the time.. Tie the child to you through fear..... or “tie yourself” to the child, not to allow him to separate, to literally “protect” him from the possibility of psychologically growing up. Now this is not a classic story. One mother came to me with complaints that her 3.5-year-old child had become afraid of everything. At first, the child was afraid of a large dog. Then the girl began to be afraid of mosquitoes, flies, and various gnats. Then to sleep alone. Then to be in the toilet. Then to go home from the street. And new and new fears appeared... Through what phrases does a child learn that he is afraid of everything? Through something like this: “Do you want to go to the sea? But there are fish there!” - the mother says with fear in her voice...” Yes, they can touch the child’s leg and scare them,” she explains out loud. “Go to bed, it’s NOT scary in your room,” this is usually how a mother escorts her daughter to bed.. And the child’s brain ignores the prefix “No” and the baby tosses and turns half the night and doesn’t let the whole family sleep..."Don’t run after these boys, you’ll get carried away and get hit by a car!"....I invite the child to go with me to the next room to play and draw. A girl who sees me for the first time in her life just 10 minutes, he happily agrees, takes me by the hand and the two of us leave.... There is no fear. Just like there are many other things invented by parents. You know, there are many children who cannot be intimidated.. They are naturally endowed with the ability to grow and develop, and at the same time feel safe. But why such a symptom (“my child is afraid of everything”) is needed for the mother, we will find out during subsequent sessions. And this is no longer child psychology. But personal therapy.