What do you do when your child is scared to go to school? How do you fight the fear?
My middle child started out the school year super excited about Kindergarten…
…but her enthusiasm was short lived. It was replaced with anxiety and fear like I have never seen in her. So much so that I had to keep her home a few days here and there due to intense tummy aches and crying spells that popped up in the car on the way to school.
I questioned my decision to send her to school to begin with. Was I doing the right thing? Was I throwing my precious child to the dogs? Nothing can give you a heaping helping of mom guilt quite like sending your child to school when they are scared.
I called her teacher, talked to the school counselor and just about anyone who would listen and give me advice. Her teacher said she was a good student. She had made friends with other kids. The counselor said some of the anxiety was normal. She offered to check up on her. Overall I never had the feeling that something bad was happening during the day to make her scared of school.
We prayed about it every night and before school. We talked through it. We rationalized her fears. All those were good, but we were still missing something.
Her fears had simply gotten the best of her. Instead of letting the fear cripple us, I decided to fight back the best way I knew- with scripture.
The next morning, before school, I got out a permanent marker and wrote this on her hands:
“God is with you wherever you go. Jos 1:9”
I also drew a little heart on her left hand and told her that when she looked at it to remember that I loved her. She was pretty happy about going to school with her new scripture tattoo on her hand. And it worked.
That day was one of her best. She came home smiling wide and very proud of herself for making it through the day. She confessed that she still missed me, but we had turned a corner when it came to being scared of school.
[Priority’s FREE Scripture Art is just one of the ways we help you give God glory by giving His Word priority in your life. Pin it, click it, print it and frame it, or Right Click to “save as” or set as your desktop background.]
God’s word is powerful. Not just for adults who study and dig deep, but for little hearts with child-like understanding too.
Moms: What has worked for you? How do you help your children fight their fears?
