Prompts for Reflecting About Fear and Anxiety
The following resources – children’s books and short videos – can be helpful to you in fostering conversations with your children or grandchildren about fear and anxiety.
- Are fear, anxiety, or worry ever useful?
- Do we only worry about the future and not the past?
- Why do people fear losing things that they don’t even have yet?
- Do we have control over our fears?
- What is the relationship between hope and fear?
Books
Everyone in the house is afraid when a huge black dog appears, except the youngest member of the family.
Even in the midst of fear and worry, we can remember that we are loved.
When Ruby tries to ignore her worries, they take over. Then she meets another child with worries.
The boy, mole, fox, and horse are four friends, and together they explore such issues as friendship, fear and worry, freedom, kindness, and courage.
A potato tells his friends that he worries about everything, and they explore together how to deal with worries about the future.
Albert, a turtle, complains that he has a toothache. His family points out that he has no teeth, and so he cannot have a toothache. “You never believe me,” Albert protests, and he takes to his bed. His parents and siblings lament that Albert is not telling the truth. Albert’s mother goes to her several “worrying” spots to worry and each time she emerges with new ideas for how to help Albert.
A little girl imagines worry as a monster in her mind, who tells her she can’t do things, that people won’t like her, and that she shouldn’t even try. Worry tells her she will always be afraid as long as she listens to him, so she stops.
A young child opens the door to a pale, shapeless creature, Sadness, who “sits so close to you, you can hardly breathe.” The narrator tells the child to listen to Sadness and suggests comforting things to do.
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