Children live on the brink of their imagination and consequently are very aware of the 'what ifs' of life, which are always idiosyncratic.
A seven-year-old boy was terrified of going into the sea even though he was a good swimmer and fearless at the swimming pool. He turned out not to be afraid of the waves, as the adults had guessed, but that if he went '...
too far out on accident, I might sink in the sand to Australia'.
Children's fears can seem bizarre to adults. And while those of small children tend to elicit our sympathy, adults can be embarrassed and irritated by the seemingly irrational fears of older children. An irate father returned fuming from a swimming trip with his nine-year-old who had sat crying on the pool edge 'too scared to jump in'. Maybe our irritation is because older children's fears resonate with our own.
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