how to convince kids who refuse to try a ride

[TJDisneymama]

it' s maddening to me that ODS (9.5) WILL not give Haunted
mansion a try. refuses! thinks it will be too scary. he goes on just about everything else and his irrational fear of HM drives me crazy. his 3.5 y.o. sister went on and that didnt even sway him. ive showed him videos of the ride but theyre mostly pretty dark which doesnt help much. how can i convince him to go on it?

 

[mmeb144]

Leave him be. My DD, who is 18 now, didn't ride HM until she was 15. There's a nice porch that she waited for the rest of us to exit the ride. Her cousin finally talked her into it. We'd been telling her about the ride for years, but we couldn't convince her. Your ODS will be ready when he is ready.

 

[redrosesix]

it' s maddening to me that ODS (9.5) WILL not give Haunted
mansion a try. refuses! thinks it will be too scary. he goes on just about everything else and his irrational fear of HM drives me crazy. his 3.5 y.o. sister went on and that didnt even sway him. ive showed him videos of the ride but theyre mostly pretty dark which doesnt help much. how can i convince him to go on it?

My DD refused to go on POTC -- simply refused, even though I know her and I knew she loved it. It was a cast member at the ride that convinced her to give it a try -- he even took us back to look at the ride so she'd know exactly what to expect. And yes, it's one of her favourite rides -- she did it 3 times in a row that night.

For HM, the CMs act very morbid because they have to, and the whole entrance part (especially the waiting room) can be pretty scary compared to the rest of the ride, which is mostly fun. However, the wheelchair entrance bypasses that scary part, so I'd think if you ask the CM for help they might be able to hook you up and calm him down a bit. They would probably drop the creepy act if that would work too.

 

[MSSANDRA]

Agree. It's not about you. If he rides most other things and just does not want to do this one....let it go. Maybe the grave yard or just the whole setting truly give him the creeps! My DS6 hates the HM. He went on it once when he was younger and refuses to do it again. That's ok with me. His choice.

 

[TJDisneymama]

the weirdest part is he LOVES anything to do with haunted houses -- toys, books, tv shows, etc. and anything "creepy" in general - he loves!

he never even made into the front room so he has no idea about its creepiness level.......his favorite ride of all is ToT and i think thats pretty darn creepy!

 

[GovieMom]

Leave him be. Your ODS will be ready when he is ready.

 

[mad madam mim78]

it' s maddening to me that ODS (9.5) WILL not give Haunted
mansion a try. refuses! thinks it will be too scary. he goes on just about everything else and his irrational fear of HM drives me crazy. his 3.5 y.o. sister went on and that didnt even sway him. ive showed him videos of the ride but theyre mostly pretty dark which doesnt help much. how can i convince him to go on it?

I'm with you. I've got. 9.5 year old who is scared to death of it. Even though he's been on it like 5 or 6 times. He actually refers to it as the terror ride. I usually go with bribery. If that doesn't work he rides the "white bench ride" outside the HM while we ride.

I source of my irritation is because we allow him to play scary video games like black ops and resident evil and he doesn't blink an eye. But put a 50 year old musty robot in his face and he poops his pants.

 

[Donna in NJ]

Fears are very real to the person that has them. I am terrified of heights. There are several rides I refuse to try. My husband use to get very upset I would not go on the rides with him. I felt when he got mad that he had no regard for my feelings. I wanted so bad to make myself go on the rides with him. I final asked what one ride he wanted me to go on with him. He choose Everest. I was so scared I had an asthma attack. My husband finally realized it was not just me being stubborned. We now bring cell phones and I look around and he calls me when the ride is over and we do things together. If the ride has a photo screen I wait there and enjoy seeing him on the ride. I use to feel sad and bullied, now we both have a great vacation. Is always plenty of other things to do.

 

[Salrx95]

Leave him be. . Your ODS will be ready when he is ready.

Exactly. You said it perfectly.

If he is afraid, why would you push him to do something he doesn't want to do. Books, toys, tv shows are likely a lot less real to him. It shouldn't be that big a deal to you. I'd let him be, too.

 

[Jennasis]

Yep. Leave him alone. He'll ride it when he's ready...or not. Either way.

 

[tessa67]

I agree, don't force him. I think it is important to respect a child's innate sense of fear and not try to override it. That "feeling" is what keeps us safe in all kinds of situations and you don't want him to think he shouldn't listen to his inner voice.

 

[Iforgetmypassword]

Ask him to name his price. Agree to it. Honor it.

 

[minnie mum]

Leave him be. Your ODS will be ready when he is ready.

Simply put. And the best advice there is. I pushed one of my children to ride HM before she was ready and she got on the ride without a fuss. And couldn't bring herself to get on it again for 15 years! I felt like the worst mother in the entire world. From the voice of experience- do not do what I did.

 

[mom2rtk]

Wait for peer (sibling) pressure to kick in all on its own. Eventually he'll probably reach a point where he's embarrassed to have his little sister ride but not him. He might be a teenager by then, but who cares.

One of mine was very late to start thrill rides. He's just a very cautious sort. He loves them now.

 

[DisneyDad1257]

I was one of those kids that got pushed onto a ride by my dad. When I was 7 my dad tricked me into going on BTMRR. He told me that it was a nice little train ride and I basically screamed my head off for the whole thing. I have been back to WDW about 5 times since then and have never been on it again. Because of this I will not ride any roller coasters anywhere. I love going to Cedar Point (the roller coaster capital) and have never been on a coaster there. I have never really been a thrill ride person anyway.

So just think about it. I promised myself that I would never push my kids to ride anything they didn't want to. My DW will ride just about anything and I sure hope for her sake that one of our kids grows up to ride all the thrill rides with her.

 

[kandb]

A few vacations back there was a man and his son behind us in line and the boy (probably about 7) was crying and trembling that he didn't want to ride HM and the father was forcing the child to go on the ride. The child was shaking and the father forced him on. I was livid and it broke my heart that a parent would force a child onto something that he was so scared of (probably and ego thing for the stupid father). My son is 9 years old and he doesn't want to ride and we say "OK, but your missing a great ride". He has been on once or twice before but he thinks it's too scary. I am fine with it, and let him make his own choice.

 

[kstgelais4]

OMG, my ds (11) is the same way! He has never ridden it although the rest of his sib's have. I ask him every time, and every time he says no. Last time (he was 10) we got as far as the stretch room, but as soon as the lights went off he freaked and had to be escorted out. I won't force him to ride it, but do find it very annoying especially considering I know he'll love it and will ride pretty much everything else. Makes no darn sense to me! LOL

 

[marybaby08]

Well, you are the only one that know your son. I always said to my son that he need to tried one time an see if he like it or no. Example in California they have the Matterhorn , I went on it first by myself and saw that it doesn't droop you and the monster isn't scary , he refuse but I was sure he would love it, he went on it guess what 3 times he rode that thing. But on the other hand I know he would hate TOT so he have never done that and I said to him you do it when you want it.

 

[pixarmom]

it' s maddening to me that ODS (9.5) WILL not give Haunted
mansion a try. refuses! thinks it will be too scary. he goes on just about everything else and his irrational fear of HM drives me crazy. his 3.5 y.o. sister went on and that didnt even sway him. ive showed him videos of the ride but theyre mostly pretty dark which doesnt help much. how can i convince him to go on it?

Leave him be. My DD, who is 18 now, didn't ride HM until she was 15. There's a nice porch that she waited for the rest of us to exit the ride. Her cousin finally talked her into it. We'd been telling her about the ride for years, but we couldn't convince her. Your ODS will be ready when he is ready.

Agreed. Wanted to add two things:

1) I've been going to DL/WDW since I was two years old. I went on all sorts of rides growing up. But Haunted Mansion? Not until I was in college. Not kidding. I would sit on the bench outside and wait for my parents and my little brother. Finally, sitting outside of HM one night, I realized it would be less scary to be with my family inside HM than sitting by myself outside of HM and I tried it. It was hilarious. Couldn't believe I missed that ride for so long and it really was more scary waiting outside alone in the dark! But they never pushed me and I really appreciated it.

2) We do the same with our kids - we encourage them to give rides a try, but nobody is forced on a ride. Our boys (now ages 6, 12 and 13) have been going to WDW and DL frequently since our oldest was a baby. The only one who ever resisted HM was our youngest. We encouraged him to give it a try, but didn't force him. Last year at DL, we tried again by saying "Let's check it out." He said OK. He thought it was fine. After that, he skipped HM twice at WDW and now goes on it again. It's nice when we can all ride together, but if he wants to sit it out, that's fine too.

 

[ktlm]

Have you tried bribery? My DD can be a ride chicken, and we've done everything from the Mickey head ice cream bar to a toy she wanted (which she would have gotten anyway, but shhh don't tell her!). If that doesn't work, I'm with the others that say let him do it in his own time. At age 8, I actually had to be evacuated from HM through a back entrance after the strectching room because my parents had pushed me to go on it and I was absolutely terrified and was NOT getting on that ride. The worst thing was I was also terrified to follow the CM that was getting me out through the back entrance because he looked really scary to me in his outfit and it looked dark the way he was having me go. Not one of my finer childhood moments!