4 year old scared of parsha

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amother

Thu, Jan 18 2024, 5:49 pm

Last week and again this week, my 4 year old is scared of what she is learning in parsha. Seems like she might be scared of the makkos or bad king pharaoh.
How can I help her?

amother

Lightgreen

Thu, Jan 18 2024, 5:52 pm

Firstly fine out which of those shes scared of.

amother

Lemonlime

Thu, Jan 18 2024, 5:55 pm

Tell her everything will be ok in the end of the story, the yidden go out of mitzrayim away from the bad king and everyone is happy.

amother

Lightgreen

Thu, Jan 18 2024, 5:58 pm

amother Lemonlime wrote:

Tell her everything will be ok in the end of the story, the yidden go out of mitzrayim away from the bad king and everyone is happy.

A four year old isn't scared because she's afraid that the story won't be good in the end...

amother

Amaryllis

Thu, Jan 18 2024, 6:01 pm

You: Is mean king Paraoh scary?

Her: Yes!

You: So what does Hashem do to mean and scary people?

Her: Ummm... stop them?

You: That's right! The Yidden davened to Hashem and Hashem stopped Paraoh! Hashem punished Paraoh for being mean and took all the Yidden far away from him.

Her: But the Makos are scary!

You: The Makos were scary only for the people who were doing bad things! Hashem didn't let any of the Makos hurt the Yidden. Right you do good things? Right you do mitzvos?

Her: Yes

You: Hashem didn't give the makos to people who do mitzvos! Only to the Mitzriyim who were mean!

Her: It's still scary!

You: So let's do what the Yidden did, whenever they were scared. Let's ask Hashem to keep us safe!

Her: How?

You: Talk to Hashem! Say, "Hashem, keep us safe!"

Her: Hashem, keep us safe!

You: Good! I'm sure Hashem will listen to you! Hashem especially listens to the Tefillos of little kinderlach.

amother

Clematis

Thu, Jan 18 2024, 6:06 pm

amother Amaryllis wrote:

I feel like this might lead to children being overly concerned with doing the right thing...

"Oh no I didn't do xyz so now Hashem is going to punish me like the mitzrim!"

Otherwise a pretty solid script.

amother

Lightgreen

Thu, Jan 18 2024, 6:08 pm

amother Clematis wrote:

To account for this you can say that Hashem is punishing those who hate the Yidden/are bad to us instead

But firstly, is that what she's afraid of?

amother

Lemonlime

Thu, Jan 18 2024, 6:22 pm

amother Lightgreen wrote:

A four year old isn't scared because she's afraid that the story won't be good in the end...

This is what I was told to say when my preschooler was scared of the chanuka story, and it worked.

amother

Firethorn

Thu, Jan 18 2024, 6:29 pm

When my sister was 3 she came home erev pesach from school with her eyes wide open in fear, “mommy paroh is back!!”

amother

Lemonlime

Thu, Jan 18 2024, 6:30 pm

amother Firethorn wrote:

When my sister was 3 she came home erev pesach from school with her eyes wide open in fear, “mommy paroh is back!!”

amother

Lightcoral

Thu, Jan 18 2024, 6:50 pm

Oh wow, so it's not just my kid!

gottago

Fri, Jan 19 2024, 7:25 am

Your daughter probably has a good imagination and a lot of empathy .
First get to the bottom of what's sharing her and why it's scary.
Then you can explain to her that this happened a very very very long time ago and has never happened again.
It only happened to really really really bad people and those people don't exist anymore.

Please talk to her teacher and explain. Most teachers dramatize and act out the parasha stories. This is great teaching, but for a kid who is scared, it can be too much. The teacher should be aware and keep an eye on your daughter during the scary parts.
If she's still having a hard time, it might be a good idea for her to skip parasha time when it's such a graphic story. (It'll happen again with purim and then with Pesach)

DrMom

Fri, Jan 19 2024, 7:36 am

Let her teacher or whomever is teaching her parshat hashavua that she is frightening your daughter. See if she will dial down the frightening tone and make it more age-appropriate.

balance

Fri, Jan 19 2024, 8:05 am

The teacher needs to be contacted. She must be over dramatizing the story. She needs to hear that she's scaring the kids and tone it down.

amother

Raspberry

Fri, Jan 19 2024, 9:18 am

My 2 year old came home last week and this week talking about punishments. She thought the water in our house wld turn to blood I had to reassure her it was a long time ago. I don’t know what’s gonna be when she’s 4…

Chayalle

Fri, Jan 19 2024, 9:22 am

Make sure she knows that Pharoh is dead and is not coming back to life. And is nowhere near your house....

I remember when my DD asked me if Haman would be able to come to Lakewood....

amother

Bone

Sat, Jan 20 2024, 10:06 pm

My 4 year old is terrified of all the children's story cds that tell about chanuka, purim, parsha.... if my older kids turn it on, she'll sit with her fingers in her ears.

In school she's ok but her teacher really doesn't teach much. She focuses more on middos and mitzvos. I'm ok with it. Like she'll learn it another year.

amother

Moccasin

Sat, Jan 20 2024, 10:23 pm

Make sure she's aware that it's not actually happening/going to happen now.

When my son was almost three, he kept saying he doesn't want Pesach. We finally realized it was because he thought all the makkos were going to happen then...

amother

Cadetblue

Sun, Jan 21 2024, 9:29 pm

I was terrified of parsha/Paroh as a kid. I used to leave the classroom for parsha time. I was also terrified of purim costumes, injuries, and lots of other things. I outgrew it eventually Smile

amother

Tanzanite

Sun, Jan 21 2024, 9:33 pm

Anxiety

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