Parenting Tips for Your 41-42 Month Old Child
Your child cannot separate fantasy from reality. For example, if an adult has a nightmare, he wakes up, shakes his head, gets a drink of water and says to himself, “Boy, I’m glad that was just a nightmare.” Then he goes back to sleep. If your child has a nightmare, he thinks that the dream actually happened. He cannot separate the fantasy from the reality.
Your child believes in magic. He sees adults turn a knob, and water flows from a faucet; they flip a switch and light floods the room; buttons are pushed and you hear Grandma’s voice. Since your child does not understand how this happens, he thinks that all of these occur because of the magical powers of adults!
Your child believes everything in the world is alive, especially if it moves, either because someone pushes, pulls or carries it or because it moves by itself. For example, he may talk to the car as if it were alive. He may become afraid that the curtains fluttering by the open window are monsters and are going to eat him up.
