Be brave and face your fears – sounds easy? It can be really hard to face the fears you already know you have. But then you add your children into the mix and it opens a whole new can of worms. Here is our story…
This story is part of our Big Feelings series
Face Your Fears (and the ones you didn't know you had)
Mummy (11 years parenting)
Let’s just get one thing straight before we begin…I’m not scared of heights. I’m scared of being strapped to a harness, having to climb, jump and swing through various obstacles more than 6 metres off the ground and knowing that once you are up there, there is only one way to get your feet back to the ground: falling.
They may call it a zip-line. But it’s still just jumping off a platform (very high in the air) and falling to the ground. It just takes longer and is considered safe with a harness.
I know its safe. But that feeling of falling, the terror of stepping off into air, that is where I draw the line. So, for years when the boys have asked to go up into the trees and embrace the feeling of falling, I have come up with various excuses to keep all of our feet safely on the ground.
But they wore me down. And so I agreed. On the one condition that my feet would be staying exactly where they were designed to be. On the ground. At all times.
So on this beautiful summer day, they donned their helmets with their dad, because they still need supervision and he drew the short straw and headed up into the trees.
And I stupidly thought that would be the end of it. Because there is this thing they designed for us scaredy-cats.
It’s called cafes that sell cake.
But just before they headed off to get started, Luc turned to me.
“Mummy, you will be watching me, won’t you?”
Watching?!? Watching as you ascend into the dangerous territory of ‘fun’ that is many metres above us? Watch you as you spend the next two hours totally reliant on a harness to stop you falling to certain death?
“Of course!” Because what else can you say your child who is about to be 100% braver than you? And he’s only 8 and you are – well a few decades older than that.
So now, I’m not afraid of heights. And I’m less afraid of falling because the real fear. The really really terrifying thing. That is watching your children do it.
Face Your Fears as a Family
Getting scared is a normal part of a child’s development. And those fears will change as they get older. Here is a great article helping you to understand more about everyday childhood fears and how supported self-regulation is the key for them to face their fears.
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