When you are a toddler, the scariest things tend to be the items that are the largest or loudest in the room. The gigantic elephant head on the jumping thing kept one of my twins from bouncing about for nearly 40 minutes the other day. The freaky looking caveman jumping apparatus didn't help calm him either. Not only were these jumping area huge but they were "new" to my kids, which is another element that can really cause anxiety in this age group. Couple all of that with the possibility of not being able to see mommy fully while inside it, and you have really set the kid up for a meltdown. Yet, he did it. He watched his twin brother jump, fully enjoying every moment and eventually darling Declan headed into those bouncing things and played himself.
As my kids have hit the middle school age group, I've noticed their fears tend to shift to the little things. Quiet rooms, dark spaces, needles, confined elevators, and small bugs being among the worse for my 10 year old daughter. Just last week she completely flipped out after spotting a millipede inching up her leg. I thought she'd never calm down. The upside? I may have used the moment to convince her that a tidier room would minimize the bugs.
Tweens and Teens tend develop fears that can't be seen at all. Death, failure, rejection, the unknown ... pretty much the entire contents of Catcher in the Rye.
Moms? We fear our children will have fears. We fear our children won't have any fears. We fear our children will read our minds and see our fears. We fear we won't be able to read our children's minds and see their fears. Realistically, we miss the days of fearing giant blow up elephants and loud clowns.