"Don't Worry About It..." Doesn't Work for Worry
Picture a pink giraffe. Now stop thinking about it. Small detail: the giraffe is sneezing - a lot. And he has the most beautiful eyelashes. Okay, stop thinking about the giraffe. Did you stop? You stopped right?
If Pink Giraffe is still on your radar, congratulations - you have passed the test for being human. It's 100% normal to have uninvited thoughts that are hard to ignore, even when some well-intended person tells us to try real hard to not think about it.
For parents, it can be really tempting to push "Don't think about it" as a strategy, particularly if your child's worry has popped up at an inopportune time (right before bed, in the middle of the night, just as you're about to board the plane...). This is well meaning advice doled out by millions of parents over the years, it just doesn't work.
