Parenting and Scary Movies

[savafan]

At what age would you say is a good time to introduce kids to scary movies, primarily leaning toward the Classic Universal movie monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolfman, etc.

I know that my dad started allowing me to watch films like Halloween and Friday the 13th with him starting when I was 3 years old. I know most people would say that's crazy, but he always took the time to explain to me that it's not real, and that it's just pretend. He gave me a love for horror movies, and I'm curious how I should approach things with my own son.

[919191]

My son watched some of the Universal movies at about age 9 maybe. He didn't show the interest until then. He had just started reading Goosebumps stories. He is 12 now, and wants to watch things like Saw, but I won't let him. Suppose it depends on the child.

[savafan]

Suppose it depends on the child.

True. Most of what I watched when I was very young were the edited versions that were on TV at the time. As I got older, my parents viewed the movies prior to watching them with me.

[Yachtzee]

You might be able to tell based on how your child reacts when something scary comes on TV. My older son is 7 and I know there are some things he just shouldn't watch because they'll give him nightmares. A lot of times, when we're watching some show or movie during prime time, an ad for a horror movie will come on and he'll start covering his eyes and we'll have to mute the TV. It can be annoying when we're watching something that is supposed to be family fare and an ad for one of the Saw movies comes on.

Over time I've learned that kids can be scared by different things. Our son can watch movies about dinosaurs and the Harry Potter movies, but forget about anything with vampires or werewolves. I try to figure out what he can handle beforehand by talking to him about something that might be scary and finding out if it bothers him.

[redsmetz]

You might be able to tell based on how your child reacts when something scary comes on TV. My older son is 7 and I know there are some things he just shouldn't watch because they'll give him nightmares. A lot of times, when we're watching some show or movie during prime time, an ad for a horror movie will come on and he'll start covering his eyes and we'll have to mute the TV. It can be annoying when we're watching something that is supposed to be family fare and an ad for one of the Saw movies comes on.

Over time I've learned that kids can be scared by different things. Our son can watch movies about dinosaurs and the Harry Potter movies, but forget about anything with vampires or werewolves. I try to figure out what he can handle beforehand by talking to him about something that might be scary and finding out if it bothers him.

When someone like your son has a dad who looks like a Reptile Man, I would imagine he can handle more than your average bear from scary movies.

BTW, I agree about commercials. The garbage Fox would show during the World Series would tick me off to no end, whether it was scary stuff or risque ads for their junk they broadcast. When my kids were little, it was very frustrating.

[savafan]

My way around the commercials is that I don't have TV (old television, no cable converter box or that HD thing they were giving away), so I stick to DVD or watching shows online.