Are your kids freaked out by the charaters?

[kkevcamsmom]

Our DS3 (will be 4 when we go) is terrified of Chuck E. Cheese. I want to do a character breakfast with Pooh and Friends but I am worried he will totally freak when he sees them.

Anyone else have a kid freaked out by Chuck E. Cheese but loved the Disney characters?

We are going in January so we have time to secretly prep him without him knowing it...lol

We have been to Six Flags quite a few times and he's done fine there.

Thanks,

Lori

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

My DS6 and DS8 have always been wary of characters. Even face characters...the only time one ever approached a character was when DS6(3 at the time) sidled up next to Spongebob at our local grocery store....

They like to see them from afar, but won't go near them...Saves a lot of time not standing in line for autographs, saves money from expensive character breakfasts, and (sigh) no cute photo ops...

He may do fine just looking at them, without getting near them...good luck..

 

[jcriket]

I'm not sure why, but my oldest went till she was about 4 then became terrified of characters for about 1 year, then when she was about 6 she decided she wanted to go see beast?. After that she was cured. We never tried to force her to see characters.

 

[HappyLawyer]

from the first time we went to disney my dtr has been freaked out by minnie, i don't get it, she is fine with mickey.

 

[KarlaG4Kids]

If they are freaked out don't hesitate to hold them and still have your pictures taken. The characters won't try to reach for your child if he/she is upset. It just takes a little exposure in most cases. Since you aren't going until January you can use both Halloween and Christmas as opportunities to practice. Our oldest grandson was really terrified of Santa one year and so the next year we practiced in our living room (pretending to be Santa and letting him pretend to be Santa too) for weeks until it was time to go visit Santa...he was a little leary but he didn't scream and cry. Also he did much better at Disney World with the characters after that.

 

[novdisneydreams]

My DS3 actually MISSED his brother's 6th B'day party at Chuck E. Cheese's because he was so freaked out - spent the entire time in the parking lot w/ poor DH , mostly screaming that he wanted Mommy and brother out of that place! ( He was TERRIFIED!) So we were so worried about the characters at Disney a few months later. We talked to him ALOT about how friendly and nice and wonderful they would be and held our breath. And actually the first exposure at MGM didn't go so well. He stared from afar at Mickey and JoJo but wouldn't venture near. I thought that my dreams of adorable photos w/ characters would be dashed. Then the next day we came around a secluded corner in Epcot (near England, I think) and there were Chip n' Dale. I guess that they had just come out because there were no other kids near them. DS6 ran up to get their autographs and they were such great characters, hugging and giving him High5s. I'd backed off w/ DS so he could admire (fear?) them from afar. But after a few seconds of watching his brother he looked up at me and said, "Can I go Mama?" I was shocked but said "Sure" - so he cautiously went up and poked, petted, then patted Chip (or was it Dale) and then smiled (he was SO proud of himself) hugged the them, gave them High 5s, and hammed it up for some adorable pictures. I swear I was teary eyed ( I'm sappy like that!) After that he was GREAT w/ the characters (except for the scary ones - villians etc - he never did go near them) He loved the CP Pooh characters and that was one of our favorite dinners the whole time. The Disney characters are so much friendlier than Chuck E. Cheese - the costumes just look better, expressions are sweeter, CMs are great with little ones ... I'd say just try to ease into it - and you may be surprised at your DSs reaction

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

My DS3 actually MISSED his brother's 6th B'day party at Chuck E. Cheese's because he was so freaked out - spent the entire time in the parking lot w/ poor DH , mostly screaming that he wanted Mommy and brother out of that place! ( He was TERRIFIED!)

I don't blame him, that rat terrifies me, too....

I think one poster said it best, just take it easy and if you have to hold him to get him near the characters, then do that. don't force him, or he may never come around...!

 

[kkevcamsmom]

Thanks everyone!

The funniest thing happened today though. There was a Capt'n Crunch down at our July 4th celebration (Quaker is a big part of our cities income ), anyway, DS3 thought he was cool. Would not get to close but waved and laughed. The Capt'n was great, just waved and pretended to laugh back. DS3's eyes just lit up...lol

We have a glimmer of hope

Lori

 

[magicmirror]

My four year old has never been freaked out by characters, and we have had dora , pooh, and barney parties. I hope she doesn;t start now, she is super shy, but was always happy go lucky at all of her parties. We scheduled 9 nights at disney with about 6 character meals, . I hope she isn't afraid of them.

 

[paintnolish]

DD, now 5, is still scared of some characters. She HATES CEC! She does not like Chip and Dale, or some of the big characters, either, like Sully and Goofy.

 

[amy4bruce]

My DS3 actually MISSED his brother's 6th B'day party at Chuck E. Cheese's because he was so freaked out - spent the entire time in the parking lot w/ poor DH , mostly screaming that he wanted Mommy and brother out of that place! ( He was TERRIFIED!)

Maybe he wasn't scared. Maybe he was just showing his good taste.

Seriously, DD6 was scared of Chuck E. when she was 2 or 3, and scared of the Chick-fil-a cow, and even a giant Bert and Ernie. By the time she was six, at Disney, she was fine.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

I just remembered this. DS6 and DS8, as I have already mentioned, will not get near any characters....but...for some reason when they saw the green army guy (toy story-very well done) they did a "high-five" with him and let me take their picture..go figure that one out.....

 

[byoung]

When my DD was young, it wasa great for them to be over there but not close.

 

[sptddog]

We just came back from a 7 day trip last week. My DD is 21 months - we watched the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cartoon to get familiar with the characters and then watched the DVDs that had 'real' characters on it before we left. We also prepped her by telling her she could talk to Mickey, and that he was big but not scary etc.

My DD has hated the Easter Bunny, Santa, and Chuck E Cheese so far...

We had two character meals, one the first night we were in Disney. She LOVED them. We did CP with Pooh and friends. We saw Tigger in Magic Kingdom the next day in Pooh's Playful Area and while she left DH carry her up to him, she really wanted nothing to do with him. I started to think the first night was a freak thing and that she would be afraid at our next character dinner but she wasn't. The only thing we can come up with is that when she was in her high chair, they lowered themselves to her and she didn't feel put on the spot nor did she have to actually approach them.

My DH thought some of it had to do with the fact that she 'knew' the characters and with Chuck E Cheese at least she had no idea who he was really, so no association other than some big scary thing. She knows Minnie and Pooh and stuff to be friendly, likeable things.

We figured if she was scared we could probably sort of hold her when the characters came near so she didn't get surprised. Everyone told us that the characters sense when to not come up to the kids etc, and that you can still do the dinner and just not have the characters come over. We had our two older godchildren with us (5 & 9), so we sat them both on one side of the table, and my DD on the other - this way the characters could go to them and DD could just look across the table.

Good luck!

 

[mommiepoppins]

when they were 1 and 2 they hated it

 

[katytrott]

It's our son's (2) first Disney trip in Oct and we too are anxious as to what his response will be with the characters.

Having no experience in this area, I'm not the best one to give advice, but we have decided to ease him in gently by taking him to the characters (in the parks) rather then them coming to him (in a character meal). He is quite a brave little chap, but the only time he freaks out is when he is in his high chair and strangers (to him), and people he kind of knows, come to him. I think it is because he feels vulnerable and not in control, he is unable to choose to hide behind me for the odd few seconds until he gets his confidence back. When in the parks, taking him to the characters will keep him in control

 

[ilovepooh]

I'd love to hear how he does. We're planning our trip to WDW next summer and it will be DS's first trip. He will be 2 and I'm wondering how he'll be with the characters. He loves Playhouse Disney shows in the morning and I'm going to show him the various movies throughout the year. We'll see how he is with Santa this year. He'll be about 1 1/2 years old at Christmas.

Thanks for sharing your stories.

 

[disneyde]

I have two girls one is shy and the other outgoing. What's funny about the shy one was that on our last trip she didn't want to greet and hug characters but she really liked the cast members wearing their costumes. We went to the Columbia House for lunch one day at MK and she fell in love with one of the waitresses in her costume. She wanted her picture taken with the young lady. The waitress was sooooo sweet they both just loved it. I think Audrey really made this young ladies day and then she brought out trading pins for both our girls. It was one of those really magical memories.

 

[katytrott]

I'd love to hear how he does. We're planning our trip to WDW next summer and it will be DS's first trip. He will be 2 and I'm wondering how he'll be with the characters. He loves Playhouse Disney shows in the morning and I'm going to show him the various movies throughout the year. We'll see how he is with Santa this year. He'll be about 1 1/2 years old at Christmas.

Thanks for sharing your stories.

I'm sure I will post somewhere how we get on, there is often threads like this one, and we will have plenty of tips and experiences by then I would be happy to share. What we are doing now to prepare is regularly visiting our local Disney store, letting him play with my Disney toys I've had for years (Buzz, Woody, the "big five" etc), and watching a Disneyland Paris sing a long video which shows all the characters inside the park. He is not really interested in the TV generally and can normally manage 5 min (probably not a bad thing), but he absolutely loves books and has learned all kinds of characters from Disney books we can get from the libarary. He learned about the Easter Bunny from a book and when we saw one for real, he gave him the most enormous hug (he was Goofy size as well!).
Another thing we did was take him to Portsmouth, a famous historic harbour near us. The HMS Victory (the battle of Trafalgar) is there which you can tour around. It is such a beautiful and amazing ship, which, now to our son, looks like Captain Hook's ship). In consequence, he now is mad keen on pirates and the characters from Peter Pan, so I am hoping he will be ok with those characters and going on POTC, which was something I was a bit concered about. The other night I heard him going "aaarghh" like a pirate in his sleep

 

[Disney MAINEiac]

My oldest DS has always been "freaked out" by all characters, doesn't trust them or clowns and would literally crawl over me to get away. So we never pushed it, did not want to ruin his trips for our memory photo ops. therefore we have never done a character breakfast, now he's older and the whole idea is to kiddie for him. Guess i'll never get to live my childhood through him..