How to Tell Your Children Scary Stories

How should you tell your children scary stories? Kids love hearing scary stories so they know they can survive their nightmares. Here, we'll provide you with tips and tricks to tell your children scary stories.

How to tell children scary stories is a common question among parents. It’s normal to want to protect your children from fear, risky situations and bad news.

However, this shouldn’t stop you from reading scary stories or telling them about sad realities of the world. It’s very important for you to help them process, ask themselves necessary questions, face their fears and overcome them.

Keep in mind that children are very impressionable and easily scared. Therefore, it’s important to take advantage when they ask for scary stories to help them overcome their fears. When you tell them stories, they remember and reflect on them.

If you want to succeed and grab your children’s attention, it’s important to read scary stories with them so they can conquer their fears. Teachers and psychologists not only recommend scary stories for entertainment, but also because they’re important lessons for child development.

In this article, we’ll give you some tips on how to tell your children scary stories, as well as the main reasons why you should read them.

Why is it important to read your children scary stories?

Depending on how old your children are, you have to know that they might be afraid of a lot of things. At some point, they might be afraid of not being loved or being less loved than their siblings.

Ultimately, they may be afraid of losing you, or of you and your partner getting a divorce. They’re also afraid of dying, and many other things.

No matter how much you talk to them, kids always have secret fears that they don’t tell you about. In addition, there are also children who have conscious fears. 

We recommend that your children read, or you read to them, scary stories. That way, they can address their feelings and express their emotions. In addition, they can learn to face their fears or control them.

When children read theses kinds of stories, they unconsciously notice the good qualities of the hero or heroine, and the bad qualities of the villain or witch.

How to tell scary stories to children under 6 years old

If you want to learn how to tell scary stories to children under 6 years old, you must keep in mind that they love them, but they’re also afraid of the unknown. They may also love witches and monsters, although these aren’t as scary.

Scary stories help children understand that fear shouldn’t paralyze them. Additionally, when they overcome their fears, they’re more open to learn, relate, share, discover, and love unconditionally.

You can follow these tips if you want to tell your children under 6 years old scary stories:

• Pick stories with witches, vampires, ghosts, and other themes that scare them just enough. Remember, use an evil voice to talk like the monsters or ghosts in the story. Don’t forget, humor overcomes fear, so feel free to make jokes while telling the story.
• Pay attention to the questions and fears that your children have while listening to the story. Help them work through them, and if necessary, adjust the story based on their reactions. Try to narrate the scariest parts of the story in a low tone, slowly, and without changing your voice too much.

How to tell scary stories to children between 7 and 11 years old

If you want to tell scary stories to children between 7 and 11 years old, you should be aware that kids at this age are very impressionable. We recommend following these tips:

• Tell the scary stories, mixing the scary and funny parts. You can also incorporate unexpected twists and turns. This will make them laugh, as well as relax. That way, they can better cope with the fear.

• In addition, you can play with your voice to set the story. Imitate the noises, cackle like a witch, speak softly to interpret evil characters, and pause for a few seconds to build suspense.
• Another option is to set the tone in the room by turning down the lights or lighting a candle. Remember, just like with younger children, humor overcomes fear. Help them forget their fear by making them laugh while you read.
• Finally, we recommend using elements to set the story. The most important thing when choosing scary stories is to know what age they’re meant for. Also, make sure that good overcomes evil. Remember, when you talk to your children about fear, you’re helping them prepare for life.