He dreads eating horse meat ... and is afraid of the stuff "craignos" hidden in his plate

February 2013. Horse sold for beef in lasagne and meatballs. May 2013, scandal of tarts sold in Ikea cafeterias and containing chocolate infested with fecal bacteria: this one did not escape the children! This is because the bad news about the contents of their plate awakens in them the ancestral fear of being poisoned, which is activated towards 2-6 years, where great chipotors, they are wary of everything they do not know .

• The reassurance

Understand.
Eat one of his favorite pets, normal that it shocks him. But nuances: horse meat is not dangerous for health. If in France, it is not always in our custom, there are countries where it is appreciated, question of food culture.

Perspective.
Normally, for all food products, surveillance is tight, and experts verify that there is no deception on the merchandise. There, there was a "couac" in the controls, but at the time, the authorities will take even more precautions. Finally, we relativize: when we discover a suspect substance like that of tartlets, in general it exists in very small quantities, within the limits allowed and not enough to make us sick. And never have our food been so sure. Today we are much healthier than their great-grandmother. In his time, you would die of salmonellosis or botulism because of homemade preserves!

The economic crisis the anxiety

"Adopt a plan of rigor ... Increase of unemployment in France" ... In the age of Super Mario, is it far from his concerns? No it bathes in and cares from 6-7 years. The crisis is on everyone's lips, and it echoes it in our family discussions. This is the new invisible planetary monster. He perceives it through our potential difficulties: we make and redo the accounts, we worry about invoices. Hence his fear of becoming poor ... And at 6 or 10 years, one is less perturbed by the problem itself than by the worries that this one causes to the parents. Finally the consequences in his small life do not escape him: will he have planned the robot of which he dreams?

• The reassurance

Do not deny.
Information, to a certain extent, alleviates anxiety because the less one knows more about one's fantasy. To the greatest, we can try to explain: "In France, in Europe, in the United States ... those who govern us are doing everything we can to get out of it. It may take time, but we will get there. "

Play it realistically.
The younger he is, the more he needs to be brought back to his daily reality. So we say what it is for our family, and if there is a drop in lifestyle, we warn him of the changes: "At the moment, we pay attention to spending: we will not go on vacation in Italy but in the family in the Perigord. It will be top! With your cousins, we'll do a lot of things together. "The crisis does not prevent family life with tenderness. And if the pleasure of the parents pierces despite the difficulties, it is forgotten.

Cultivate optimism.
The world has overcome much more serious crises like the crash of 1929. In a few years it will prepare a diploma, and it will surely find a good trade that will allow him to make a living.

He is afraid of attacks in schools ...

March 2012, terrorist attack against a Jewish school in Toulouse: 4 people killed including 3 children. May 2013, a man enters a Parisian primary school with a rifle, does not kill school children but shoots himself in the head ... All of a sudden, all the children feel targeted. Now school is their second home, and therefore normally a space without violence, a nest of security. What is shocking for a 6-8 year old is that children have died, that it happened in a school and that the adults who were supposed to protect them could not do anything.

• The reassurance

Listen to it first.
By questioning him tactfully or by letting him speak, one tries to know what he knows about the event and what he has understood. For it creates its representation of facts, its own images, sometimes very different from reality. And then the news circulates among children, and the great exaggerate the facts to scare the little ones.

Inform him soberly.
We do not leave him alone with his anguish even if he is silent (a way to protect himself) ... knowing that there are no good words to explain the horror. Often, what bothers the biggest, that's why this killer did that? We are not going to explain terrorism but we can say: "The one who kills children usually has serious problems in his head. Knowing that there are fools on earth will not protect him from danger, but it reassures him about the exceptional nature of these acts.

Restore confidence.
These crimes are punished. Murderers and terrorists are immediately searched by thousands of policemen and most of the time, they are eventually arrested and imprisoned for life. And then it remains exceptional and the schools are well protected

He is afraid of catching a deadly virus

Every year or so brings its pandemic or its wicked virus declared potentially fatal to humans: seasonal flu epidemic every winter. 2009, influenza A virus. May 2013: episode of the Coronavirus. For him, this is the last alien Exterminator. Another universal childhood fear, that of sickness, of dying, of losing loved ones, which translates differently according to the new risks of society. (In the ^19th the children were afraid of dying of cholera!).

• The reassurance

To relativize with him the recurrent episodes of the viruses: the coronavirus made only 2 deaths in France. Its home is far away, in Saudi Arabia and France is not particularly exposed and our country has a good health system. Finally, there are laboratories of researchers super performing in the tracking of dangerous viruses.

Clean up our fads.
Regarding our habits of hygiene, we make 2 lists. Those which testify of our personal paranos and those necessary to preserve oneself from the infections. He is given the essential list: to wash his hands before going to the table and after going to the toilet, to wash his teeth twice a day, to blow his nose in a tissue and then to throw it in the trash ...