Babies - The Power of Positive Suggestions : Fear

The Mother and Her Child
by William S. Sadler, M.D., Lena K. Sadler, M.D.

(Page 37 of 43)

A child is the most imitative creature in the world. Before he is out of pinafores he tries to talk and act just like his elders. It is because of this inherent tendency to say and do those very things which he hears others say and do, that, if faith-thoughts are early and constantly suggested to the unfolding mind of the child they will assist greatly in evolving a character of joy, confidence, and courage.

On the other hand, if fear-thoughts are continuously sown in the young mind they will eventually distort the emotions, deform the conceptions, and wholly demoralize the health and life activities of the growing child. Within the limitations of the possibilities of hereditary endowment, and in view of this wonderful imitative nature, we are able to make of a child almost anything we desire; not "an angel," in the ordinary acceptation of the term, but a child who knows his place and possesses the power of normal self-control.

Early Fears

From two to six years of age, when the imagination is most plastic and vivid, when the child's imitative instinct is so unconsciously automatic, is the most effective and opportune time to initiate good habits and lay the foundations for the later development of a strong and noble character. "Baby's skies are Mamma's eyes" is just as true as it is poetical.

While a tired and worn-out mother, exhausted by a multitude of harassing household cares, may be pardoned for her occasional irritability, nevertheless the little one unconsciously partakes of her spirit. When the mother is happy the child is happy. When Mother is sick and nervous the child is impatient and irritable.

It is unfortunate that this very time of a child's life, when we can do practically anything we choose with him, is the very time when so many parents fill the child's mind with the unhealthful fear-thoughts. "The bogie man will get you if you don't mind Mamma," or, "I'll get the black man to cut your ears off," or, "the chimney sweep is around the corner to take bad little boys," are familiar threats which are so frequently made to the little folks.

These efforts to terrorize the young child into obedience never fail to distort the mind, warp the affections, and, more or less permanently, derange the entire nervous system. The arousal of fear-thoughts and fearful emotions in the mind of the growing child is very often such a psychological and a physiologic shock to the child that the results are sometimes not wholly eradicated in an entire lifetime.

Just see how far we carry this unwholesome introduction of fear-thoughts - even to the Almighty. Thousands of us remember being told as a child that "God don't like naughty boys," or, "God will send the bad man to get you if you don't be good." therefore, early in life, an unwholesome fear of the Supreme Being is sown in the mind of the child, and, as time passes, these false fears grow and come so to possess the mind and control the emotions that in adult life this early teaching comes to mold the character and shape the religious beliefs of the individual.

To the child who has been reared to dread God, who has come to look upon the Creator as an ever present "threat," how is it possible to convey the beautiful teaching of His fatherhood?

Fear of Noises

How frequently some unusual noise leads a parent to say: "Keep still! What was that? Did you hear that noise?" The little folks of the family are startled, their eyes grow large and their faces pale, while they cling to the frightened mother. Of course, investigation usually shows that the strange and alarming noise was merely the slamming of a cellar door, the rattling of a curtain in the wind, some one walking about downstairs, or the action of the new furnace regulator in the basement. But meantime the harm is done to the children - fear, the worst enemy of childhood, has been unconsciously planted in the mind by the thoughtless and nervous parent.

Fear of Darkness

Consider for a moment the thousands of children who are early taught an abnormal fear of the dark. Even when the child is absolutely free from such a fear, when sent into a dark room some member of the family will thoughtlessly remark, "Do you think it is quite right to send that child into that dark room? Suppose something should happen." The child quickly catches the suggestion that something is supposed to be or happen in the dark, and in his mind is sown the seed of fear.

When our boy was about two years old he was carried one night to the window by a caretaker, and as they looked out into the darkness the young woman said, "Boo! dark!" The little fellow shuddered, drew back and repeated, "Boo! dark! Boo! dark!"

That night, as was our custom after the evening story, we tucked him in his little bed, turned out the light, and saying, "Sweet dreams, Darling," closed the door. Imagine our surprise to hear, "Mamma, Mamma, Willie 'afraid of dark, Willie 'afraid of dark," and it was with difficulty that he was induced to go to sleep in the dark. Immediate inquiry revealed the occasion of his fears, and the next night we set about to eradicate the fear of darkness from the little fellow's mind.

About the Author

Dr. William S. Sadler M.D. was a well-known American psychiatrist and college teacher in the school of medicine at the University of Chicago. For over sixty years he practiced his profession in Chicago, thirty-three years being associated in practice with his wife, Dr Lena Kellogg Sadler. The doctors were pioneers in the research on the mysterious Urantia Papers.