My 4 year old DD has developed a phobia of anyone dressed in costume with their face covered and it seems to be getting worse. Over Christmas she could not be anywhere near Santa without her getting hysterical, for example, she ran away screaming when he turned up at the pre-school Christmas party.
Recently, there was an impromptu appearance of Scooby-Doo at an event we attended and she was bawling as soon as she heard the announcement that he would be arriving. She proceeded to hide her face away for the entire 15-20min he was in the room (it seemed like he was never going to leave). This has now meant she is also scared of announcements no matter what they are about and was crying her eyes out last week when we were at a soft-play and an announcement was made as I was paying the entrance fee. Cue floods of tears and her not wanting to go inside.
Yesterday we went to a party and some children were dressed as Spiderman with masks on, so she was in tears and didn't want to go inside and refused to participate in any games for half an hour, well after the time that all of the children had removed their masks.
The problem is worsened by the fact that she is a twin so it is not always easy/practical to leave places when she is upset as her sibling is usually very excited and keen to join in and see the character DD is screaming about. I have given DD loads of reassurance about people in costume. I talked endlessly about clowns (the fear which developed first), read stories with clowns in, encouraged dressing up games at home etc. When she gets upset, I am not sure if the best strategy is to calmly reassure her or leave (which I worry perpetuates the idea that there is something to fear). I would be really grateful if anyone who has experienced this with their child could give me any tips of the best way to deal with the problem. I am worried that when she starts school in September it will be difficult for her during certain events and want to help her to develop coping strategies for when I'm not around. Thanks.
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Scared of Santa, Scooby, Spiderman, Peppa, clowns...
threelittlebigpigs · 08/04/2013 20:42
Woops, didn't mean to post that 
I just want to say, I have one fear and that is of people dressed up as characters. I've been scared of them for as long as I can remember, and many times as a child I almost got myself run over or lost because when I saw one, I would break free and run in the opposite direction. I remember a few occasions, particularly the day I was shopping with my parents and postman pat appeared, they tried to make it seem fun and tried getting me to wave at this huge, freaky character and it terrified me.
After that my mum would always be on the look out at fairs, parties etc and steer me away from them calmly and reassure me, and I expect she did try to avoid events that would involve people who were dressed up, but it's something you can't always avoid and I think the best thing to do is to put distance between your dd and the dressed up person, as when I was little all I wanted to do was to get away from them.
They still freak me out now but I am much better. However Disneyland is my worst nightmare
Most children do grow out of it, though, but I agree that trying to get your child to face their fear can make it a lot worse.
Another adult here with the same issue!
I could not get into my office one day as there were people dressed as Labradors in the foyer collecting money for charity. I had to call my boss who had to come down and ask them to wait in the security office until i was inside 
I would say being sensitive to your dd's fear and not belittling it will help. Forcing her into situations where she is sacred probably won't
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