Parents... How do you feel about...?

Question

letting your children 10 and under, watch scary movies? If you let them watch( with you, I hope) do you discuss with them what they have seen and explain to them the movie making process? My 5 year old likes to watch movies with me and his father. I make sure to keep open communication so that he feels comfortable discussing anything with me that may bother him and I make a point of asking. He is very mature for his age as a result.


I just wanted to add that he doesn't watch anything that is too grotesque or sexy. ( I do have limits!)

Answer 1

i let my son, who is 5 also, watch movies that r kinda scary. he asks questions and i tell him the truth. my son asks a lot of questions about everything tho. when he was 2 my moms mom died and i explained it to him and now he knows where she is and what she is doing. i think if ur child asks u something u should always tell the truth. if u lie to them and they find out that u lied to them they may never ask u again and ask someone that doesn't really know. my son knows that the movies he see r fake. he is also very mature for his age too. as long as the lines of communication open what does it matter what anyone else thinks?

Answer 2

My 9 year old is very mature for her age, but even still, I wouldn't think of letting her watch an R rated movie, or even many PG-13s.

And when I do, I'll have a little chat with her and say, 'you know this movie may be scary, and there may be things you don't like or things a 9-year old doesn't understand. If there's anything like that, you and I can talk about it. Right?'

Anyway, she's used to my pre-movie speech by now.

And the last time I told it to her, she said, "Right. But if there is anything like that, I'm not gonna talk to you about it!"

LOL. So now, I make sure to ask HER questions if I think its important..

Answer 3

There are various sorts of scary. You have to judge for your own kid. You are on the right track with keeping the communication open though at 5 he is not likely to be able to communicate what he is feeling and thinking completely effectively. That should be kept in mind.

I'd say that anything that is rated R is not appropriate at his age. Anything that is PG-13 is probably not appropriate at his age. The exceptions to this might be some of the movies that were first rated PG-13 way back in the day but even then probably not. Anything scary but G or PG is probably fine since you are there to talk to.

Answer 4

My 9 year old daughter LOVES them, and we have watched them together since she was about 6. As long as a movie is not overly "sexy", I pretty much let my kids watch whatever they want. I know some people don't agree with this way of thinking, but I have found that by watching different movie types (horror, action, foreign, comedy, childrens), my daughters have asked questions that I never would have thought to discuss with them.

Answer 5

In our house it's kind of interesting because my 11 year old son and 7 year old daughter are not comfortable watching movies that my 5 year old swears he's crazy about. Like Daredevil, The Hulk, Fast and Furious. Movies that his dad watches. They choose not to watch them and, against my better judgement, my husband does allow our 5 year old to watch with him. He has restrictions too regarding allowing our son to watch movies with sexual content, nudity and excessive violence. But we don't necessarily agree that alone is restrictive enough. My son also suffers from night terrors (not the same as nightmares) and I was convinced that I noticed a correlation between his watching these movies and the nights that he had night terrors. Since the summer began he's been watching regular kid movies with his siblings and hasn't had a single night terror. Not all kids have night terrors or nightmares, but there might be other ways that they may be affected without us realizing the connection. I guess my feeling is that my kids aren't going to be kids forever and why should I rush the process. I protect their innocence at all cost. Needless to say, it's a constant struggle between my husband and I.

Answer 6

Watch the movie, turn off the movie, discuss what was on the movie. Scary movies are okay, but nothing too gory or sexy.

What's really important is that they know the movie is fake and what those people are doing (if it wasn't fake) is not something to mimic. I think 5 would be a little young to fully understand. Eight would probably be as young as I'd go.

Answer 7

Well, my parents let us watch alot of horror shows and I strongly recommend that you don't let him watch anymore. I sometimes have flashbacks of scary scenes nowadays and it bothers me to this day. We just became desensitized and had alot of nightmares when we were young. We had alot of restlessness and fears after watching these shows but didn't know what exactly that meant.
A statement made on the American Academy of Pediatrics states that "media violence affects children by increasing aggressiveness and anti-social behavior, making them less sensitive to violence and to victims of violence, and increasing their appetite for more violence in entertainment and in real life", ("Media Violence and Media Literacy", Internet). From the constant viewing of violent programs, children find nothing wrong with imitating these violent behaviors, which therefore makes the young children more aggressive and on a constant search for violence everywhere. Also, young children do not have any sense of geography, so they may think that what they're seeing is happening across the street or at their school.
Children interpret the frights differently depending on their personal situations, such as the recent death of a relative or pet. It can create insecure fears and they are unable to cope. After my grandpa died, all I could think of was the maggots that I saw in some show my mom let me watch. It was so disturbing and sad.
After seeing characters kill and hurt, children may not be able to differentiate the real life violence of murder versus the onscreen make believe violence so they could interpret that violence as a way to solve problems. Even if you explain it to your son that it isn't real, he cannot separate the two because of his age, not experience. This may be some form of abuse emotionally and I disagree with you. Open communication isn't going to do anything when he is afraid. It doesn't matter if he is mature for his age, you are instilling unnecessary fears into his life. He will pay the price later on. I wished my parents didn't let us watch all that garbage, it did no good at all.
I have 3 children and am in college studying Early Childhood Development.

Answer 8

A lot of today's scary movies have really explicit sex and violence so those I wouldn't let him watch. Problem is though, unless you've already seen the movie you won't know what's in it. If you're already seen it and there's nothing you disapprove of then it's probably OK. Just make sure he doesn't have nightmares or is afraid to go into his room and stuff like that.

Answer 9

Most definitely my son was watching scary movies when he was younger, he's now 11. I always made sure that he understood that these were actors and that what was happening wasn't really happening in real life. My son has such a balanced grip on movies now that when I remind him that its just a movie and this isn't what real life is like he says, " I know ma." LoL!!!

Answer 10

I am mixed on movies.

My daughter (7) gets scared when watching things like Extreme Home Makeover because something bad happened to that family.

But my son (3) likes to watch bad guys get beat up and killed. Because they are bad guys.

But I don't let either of them watch kissing or beyond scenes on TV.