SALT LAKE CITY — As a parent, summertime can be great. School’s out, the pool is open and your kids have got nothing better to do than play outside all day long.

But what if your child doesn’t want to go outside? What if every venture outdoors means he or she is clinging to you, afraid of what might "get" them?

That was the reality at my house several weeks ago. I couldn’t even walk to the car without a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old simultaneously clinging to me, desperately listening for the nearest buzz of a bee.

Fears like this are common in children. In fact, being afraid of something is “a predictable rite of passage” for a child, according to WebMD writer Annie Stuart. Rite of passage or not, (if you’re like me) these seemingly baseless fears can be very frustrating to a parent — especially when all your efforts to dispel the child’s fear fail.

So, what is a parent to do? Here are a few ideas the experts suggest.

Recognize the fear is real

Whether you think your child is justified in his or her fear isn’t the point. The fear is real to your child, and it demands a real understanding from you. “Being able to talk about fears — words often take some of the power out of the negative feeling,” editors at KidsHealth.org write. “If you talk about it, it can become less powerful.”

As a parent, it’s also helpful to keep in mind where the fear comes from. “Children’s fears … can often be attributed to simple inexperience,” FocusOnTheFamily.com editors point out. “They become paranoid because they don’t have complete or accurate knowledge of the thing that scares them.” Simply educating your child about the object he or she fears can make a world of difference.

Don’t cater to your child’s fear

While it’s important to acknowledge the fear as real, parents need to be careful they’re not inadvertently contributing to it. For example, don’t avoid dogs if your child is afraid of them. Instead, KidsHealth.org editors suggest parents “provide support and gentle care as you approach the feared object or situation with your child.”

Help your child process the fear

There are many ways you can do this, so it’s important you choose those that you feel are best suited to your child. Tamar E. Chansky, Ph.D. and author of “Freeing Your Child from Anxiety,” says to try turning the scary thing into something fun. “By creating a competing emotion," Chansky told WebMD, "you help burn out the anxiety." If your child is afraid of the dark, she suggests going into a dark room and reading a book with a flashlight.

Another suggestion is to teach the child to rate his or her fear. “A child who can visualize the intensity of the fear on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the strongest, may be able to ‘see’ the fear as less intense than first imagined,” KidsHealth.org says.

Have patience

Perhaps the most important ingredient needed to help your child get over a fear is for you to have patience. It will take time to educate your child about the object he or she is afraid of; it will take time to help your child process the fear and become comfortable with it.

Patience is what it took for me and my kids. They don’t love bees by any means, but the more we ventured outside without one “getting” them, the more at ease they became — and the more room I had to move without tripping on anyone.

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