Calvin Smythe

@RyanfaeScotland TV shows are not the medium for learning to do things that they don't like. There are a multitude of other examples that will happen naturally while parenting a toddler that will encourage learning to do things that we don't like, (Eating vegetables, sharing, taking a bath). The use TV here is for entertainment. If what is on the TV is not entertaining, but rather inducing fear or being upset, there is not reason to try to push past it. Leave it be and watch something else.

I think it should be made clear - this discussion is about a 3 year old not wanting to watch a TV show because she doesn't like it and says she is afraid. None of this actually means she has an irrational fear. It should be taken as she doesn't like the show and the characters and doesn't want to watch the show because it upsets her in some way. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I don't want to watch shows that upset me and I sometimes have to watch it before I figure that out. Why are we arguing to make a child do something she doesn't want to do?

@Alexander I get what you are saying and think I understand your sentiment here - Don't enable further irrational fear. If so, I completely agree with you. The point is to help the child (and whoever may be responding as such) move beyond the irrational fear. I would argue that an affirmative response to emotion, however irrational, is more effective than negatively confronting the emotion by saying "That's wrong" as it can reduce anxiety and clear away that person's own anxiety and criticism of how they feel. Giving them a way out.

@Alexander, notice I didn't say how she feels is rational. Rationality comes with maturity and age - a 3 year old is probably not going to be very rational with content they don't understand. A child may say "I'm afraid of {whatever}" but that doesn't necessarily mean they fear the thing. The term afraid is the term they know that fits how they feel the best. It's our job as the parent to get to the bottom of how they feel and jumping to the conclusion that "Illogical fear is not okay" prevents further exploration.