AFraid of characters

[Aliceacc]

The low point of last year's trip was my son's sudden and overpowering fear of all costumed characters. He was OK with the princesses and other characters without a headpiece, but those fully costumed characters-- like Mickey and MInnie and crew-- drove him over the edge. He'll be 11 by the time we return, if we do choose to return this summer.

You know, and I know, that the characters won't approach him. In fact, peole wait hours in line just to get up close and personal with the characters. We also know that they're just college kids in costume. He knows that too. But he was terrified just the same.

Any suggestions? To be honest, this is one of the big things standing between a week in upstate Lake George and one in Disney this summer.

 

[susykt4]

Man, that's tough! I was trying to come up with a route around the parks to avoid characters but it just doesn't exist! They're everywhere. Does he like everything else about Disney, just not the costumed characters? Is he ok as long as he's not looking at the chars or is he constantly nervous anticipating seeing them? If he's nervous the entire trip that would be kind of awful. Otherwise, maybe he could wear a baseball cap or pirate bandana or something he could pull over his eyes when he walks past a character?

 

[bradisgoofy]

My DS got on YOUTUBE and showed our 2 yr old granddaughter videos of all the characters. When we went in October she would run up and hug every one we went to see.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

My oldest son has high-functioning autism and has never liked the characters. He's 13 now and still doesn't want to go near them. He knows they're just people in costumes, but he says those "big furry costumes" freak him out. We've never had to avoid a Disney trip because of this. We have a deal that if a character gets too close for his comfort, he can quickly leave the area as long as he takes dad or me with him (we don't want him thinking it's OK to run off by himself). He knows his 10 year old brother likes the characters and he will wait patiently at a safe distance while his brother visits. We've done a few character meals but he knows he can sit right next to me and put his head down when the characters approach. I simply tell them that he's shy and, so far, the characters have been great and leave him alone while they visit with the 10 year old. I think that acknowledging my son's issue with characters and setting up these parameters has been helpful. He knows we won't force him to stand next to them. My son has come a long way in the past several years and I cherish his accomplishments more than I would a picture of him with Mickey Mouse!

OP - Since your son is older, perhaps you can ask him what would make these encounters easier for him. Maybe just knowing he doesn't have to get close to them will be enough for him to tolerate seeing them. Or perhaps he would feel better knowing there was a plan in place if he starts getting uncomfortable.

Funny story: Once at Crystal Palace, Tigger decided to come up behind my son and put his hands over his eyes. My son was very calm and simply said, "Excuse me but your big furry costume is freaking me out and if you don't move your hands I'll start to lose it." Tigger quickly jumped back. I had to give my son credit for staying so calm and simply stating the problem!

 

[PrincessKell]

Funny story: Once at Crystal Palace, Tigger decided to come up behind my son and put his hands over his eyes. My son was very calm and simply said, "Excuse me but your big furry costume is freaking me out and if you don't move your hands I'll start to lose it." Tigger quickly jumped back. I had to give my son credit for staying so calm and simply stating the problem!

That right there is totally awesome! That is not easy for a child with Autism! I do know this for a fact. My dd has Autism and I do not believe she would be able to get the words out.

We have the same problem. Each time we go she says she is NOT going to be nervous she is going to be brave. But I do not go in with the expectation of her doing it. It would be awesome but I go in knowing that she is not going to be able to, and its ok! So when she does its totally exciting! On our last trip, she was so excited to see Lilo and Stitch I mean WHOA slow down excited. But when we got to breakfast with them she FREAKED OUT! She didnt want Stitch anywhere near her. Lilo was a different story but it took her a minute and Lilo playing a hand game with her before she would get close to her. It was totally cute and amazing. I cried. Same thing with Mickey it was our last day and she finally got the nerve up (we never pushed her to do anything) and we waited in the line for like an hour, so by then she was already done.. My dh and I had to take turns taking her out to calm her down but each time wanting to go back. She got up to him and turned around for one picture, its actually really cute. Then he got on his knee and begged and was playing around. We informed the CM what was going on, and they gave us nearly 10 minutes with Mickey!! She got the picture and they took like six extras. It was heaven sent. What a brave kid of mine.

IN fact the next trip (not planned yet) Georgia keeps telling me daily (as Disneyland is one of her hyper focus topics) that she wants to see and meet Goofy and she won't be scared. This is the one that makes her the most nervous for some reason.

Point being, we let her go at her own pace. If she wanted to it was great, if not we didnt get upset with her. There is soooo much to see and do at Disney besides characters.

Good luck!

 

[BeckyScott]

Since he's old enough to "get" that they're college students in furry costumes, you could try going "scientific" with it.

For example, they all have eye-holes in different places. Maybe make more of a game out of that. My oldest DS (who is also 11) when he met the characters, was always trying to figure out the costume, how it worked, where the eye-holes were. He thought it was a much better idea to speak to the eye-holes than to the character's fake eyes. Or for example, he figured out that the Minnie was somebody shorter than him (he's tall for his age) because of where the eye-holes were and lining them up with his height. I think part of it, too, was that he was always trying to see if he could see their real face thru the fabric. I had mentioned to the kids before their first char dinner that they needed to hold their autograph books up high enough that the characters could see them, that each character had an eye-hole someplace, and if you didn't hold stuff up to the right spot that the character wouldn't see it. DS took it from there. Donald was the best example for this, cause you know how Donald sets the autograph book on top of his bill to sign, DS explained to me how Donald had to do that because that's where the eye-holes were and that the bill is in the way so he can't see anything underneath, etc, he figured it all out pretty well.

He also did quite a bit of "observation" about how the costumes were made. Apparantly he thought I could whip one up for Halloween. But since they're made quite well, it takes a bunch of looking to figure out where they open up, how many pieces they are, etc. I guess it takes away some of the but it kept him interested.

We do the same thing with scary movies, try to figure out how they pulled off the special effect, rather than be scared by it.

My DS is borderline Aspergers, so this was definately our best approach with him, but I think in general boys that age like to know how things work, or that they're "in" on a grown-up secret.

 

[tartemis]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but my question is related. For the more experienced parents on the board, is there any way to predict whether a child is going to be scared of the characters in advanced. We are traveling to disney next month with my 17 month old daughter and I am trying to predict if she will be scared by the characters. She is a pretty bold kid (will climb over anything and approach anybody), but she is sometimes afraid of the strangest things -- she was terrified of snow for the longest time.

 

[tzolkin]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but my question is related. For the more experienced parents on the board, is there any way to predict whether a child is going to be scared of the characters in advanced. We are traveling to disney next month with my 17 month old daughter and I am trying to predict if she will be scared by the characters. She is a pretty bold kid (will climb over anything and approach anybody), but she is sometimes afraid of the strangest things -- she was terrified of snow for the longest time.

Sorry, there really is no way to predict. My DD4 has never gone near the Easter Bunny or Santa, so I wasn't sure how she would react with the characters. We did the Visa Meet&Greet in Epcot several times and each time she was just smiling and hugging the characters. She wouldn't talk, but she was very happy and comfortable. When we were in HS however, she did not want to meet any of the characters outside. (We stood in a short line for Handy Manny. Her brother met him and took pictures and she stood behind me clinging to my leg.) I don't know what the difference was other than that we were alone in a room when she met the characters at Epcot.


OP: Is your son bothered just seeing the characters or is it only being really close to them? We certainly saw characters from a distance in the shows/parades, but we really didn't come near any characters throughout the parks. Maybe we were just oblivious. I know there are set areas where you can get autographs, but my kids weren't really interested so we just avoided them. We didn't do any character meals either.

 

[crisi]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but my question is related. For the more experienced parents on the board, is there any way to predict whether a child is going to be scared of the characters in advanced. We are traveling to disney next month with my 17 month old daughter and I am trying to predict if she will be scared by the characters. She is a pretty bold kid (will climb over anything and approach anybody), but she is sometimes afraid of the strangest things -- she was terrified of snow for the longest time.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard was put your character meal a few days into the trip - not the first thing. You can then introduce your kids to the characters by standing in a character line and seeing how they react - without paying a lot for a table and trying to eat with a screaming kid. If your kid reacts well, keep your meal. If you think the meal will be spent with a shrieking toddler or a preschooler that hides under the table, you can cancel your character meal. A lot of people love the first night Chef Mickey's tradition - but it is a risk with some kids.

Characters are pretty easy to avoid up close if your kid doesn't like them. There are a few spots (entrance to the MK) where it can be hard not to see them - but to get close you need to stand in line. With a really character shy kid have them focus their attention somewhere else - if they are looking at the castle, they may not notice Tigger. WDW has plenty to look at.

My son wasn't fond of characters at three, and at four asked for an autograph book. That gave him a reason to approach the characters and he was fine with it - he just didn't like approaching them simply for a photo or a hug. My daughter has always treated the characters like huge teddy bears - autographs are secondary to hugs.

 

[laughinplace199]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but my question is related. For the more experienced parents on the board, is there any way to predict whether a child is going to be scared of the characters in advanced. We are traveling to disney next month with my 17 month old daughter and I am trying to predict if she will be scared by the characters. She is a pretty bold kid (will climb over anything and approach anybody), but she is sometimes afraid of the strangest things -- she was terrified of snow for the longest time.

It really depends on the kid. My youngest is super-friendly, never clingy, will talk to anyone. He was 17 mos on our last WDW trip and he was terrified by the characters. He was 9 mos on the trip before that and he loved them that time! We're going this spring and he will be 2.5 yrs old. I'm hoping that he'll like them, but we'll have to wait and see...

 

[tartemis]

Sorry, there really is no way to predict. My DD4 has never gone near the Easter Bunny or Santa, so I wasn't sure how she would react with the characters. We did the Visa Meet&Greet in Epcot several times and each time she was just smiling and hugging the characters. She wouldn't talk, but she was very happy and comfortable. When we were in HS however, she did not want to meet any of the characters outside. (We stood in a short line for Handy Manny. Her brother met him and took pictures and she stood behind me clinging to my leg.) I don't know what the difference was other than that we were alone in a room when she met the characters at Epcot.

Oh, I forgot about Santa. My daughter wouldn't go near him this christmas either. I guess that doesn't bode well.

The advice about not scheduling a character dinner at the beginning of the trip is also helpful!

Thanks!

 

[jmain007]

Does he mind wearing costumes or being dressed up fo Halloween - Once I showed my son that he could dress as anyone and stil be him and I explained how the characters were his friends I was able to ease him in to accepting

 

[tessiesevin]

My DD is 8 and she is terrified. We always do DDP so we
eat with just about every character. We definatley do not force
this on her. She sits on the inside of the tables so she always
has them in her view. Somedays are better than others
Somedays she worries so much (and cries) that she doen't really eat.
But when we are done all she can talk about is how much she loves
it

Most of them when they see how scared she is do not confront her.

Once at Garden Grill Chip sat acroos from her and wrote her a note
saying please don't be afraid of me I am scared of cats but don't tell
Dale. He went into the kitchen and came back
with a glow cube for her.

He made her so much more relaxed. She has the note in her scrapbook.

When we left I thanked him for it .

 

[design_mom]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but my question is related. For the more experienced parents on the board, is there any way to predict whether a child is going to be scared of the characters in advanced. We are traveling to disney next month with my 17 month old daughter and I am trying to predict if she will be scared by the characters. She is a pretty bold kid (will climb over anything and approach anybody), but she is sometimes afraid of the strangest things -- she was terrified of snow for the longest time.

I agree with the others that it's difficult to predict. My son (3yo at the time) FREAKED OUT when he saw costumed characters at restaurants, festivals, etc. We went to Red Robin (burger chain) one night when they brought out the costumed mascot. DS practically climbed onto my head and shouted, "I don't want that Red Robin to go crazy at me!!! Make him go back to his nest!" (I'm not sure what he was afraid of. The character wasn't doing anything more than shaking hands and passing out balloons... and he was several tables away.)

Anyway -- when we went to WDW I was sure that he was going to freak out over the characters. We spent the first day avoiding them. (By the way, for those with children who are afraid, it *is* possible to avoid the characters. They usually hang out in certain places and you can just go the other way. If you must pass one, they're usually surrounded by such a mob that it's difficult to tell who's a the front of the line anyway. Quick distraction and -- zip -- you're past.)

Anyway -- we spent the first day of our trip strategically avoiding the characters. Near the end of the day, DS looked at me and said, "I thought Mickey Mouse lived here. How come I haven't seen him?" We went over to Toon Town to meet Mickey. At first I wasn't sure if he would go up to him or not, but he did... He loves Mickey.

He's 8 now and still keeps his distance from most costumed characters... but somehow Disney characters (especially Mickey) are "different."

So... my short answer is: 1) even if your child is/isn't afraid of non-Disney characters, Disney might be different.. and 2) it is possible to avoid characters in the parks. I've done it.