Frightened of Characters

[joolz1910]

I have buried my head in the sand about this for too long, and now I am starting to worry. My DD(4) freaks out when she sees characters. I honestly thought she would grow out of this but we go in ten weeks and she is still scared. We have Crystal Palace booked for our first morning.

Any tips? Anyone else got a scaredy-cat kid?

 

[scottish mum]

My dd has jsut turned 8 and has been terrified of characters since her first visit when she was 22 months old.

For your character meals just ask your server where the character will stand at the table and put your dd as far away from there as possible. We always have my dh inbetween my dd and any character. Our first morning one year was in Crystal palace and she screamed and screamed and I thought OMG what a holiday we will have, but with a bit of reassurance and the promise that the charcaters won't touch her she did calm down, never went close to them but did tolerate them We did get family pictures with characters but my dh had to lift her and one of my ds's had to stand inbetween them and the character, but of a military operation to get the perfect picture

My dd has always liked the "face" characters though, all the princesses, peter pan etc, its just the fully costumed ones she doesn't like.

We have now just accepted this is the way she is and to force her just spoils everyones day. Good luck xx

 

[joolz1910]

My dd has jsut turned 8 and has been terrified of characters since her first visit when she was 22 months old.

For your character meals just ask your server where the character will stand at the table and put your dd as far away from there as possible. We always have my dh inbetween my dd and any character. Our first morning one year was in Crystal palace and she screamed and screamed and I thought OMG what a holiday we will have, but with a bit of reassurance and the promise that the charcaters won't touch her she did calm down, never went close to them but did tolerate them We did get family pictures with characters but my dh had to lift her and one of my ds's had to stand inbetween them and the character, but of a military operation to get the perfect picture

My dd has always liked the "face" characters though, all the princesses, peter pan etc, its just the fully costumed ones she doesn't like.

We have now just accepted this is the way she is and to force her just spoils everyones day. Good luck xx

Thanks Natalie, I think she will be fine with face characters too. I think I will reassure her that they won't touch her. Fingers crossed!

 

[Elise79]

We had the opposite problem - DD hated the face characters but loves the furs!

We just avoided them until one day she saw Snow White in Town Square and asked to go see her! There are been no looking back now

I would just let her see them from a distance and wait for her to make the move!

 

[dixonsontour]

lf she doesn't want to pose with them let her just enjoy the atmosphere - they do a little parade around crystal palace for children she might like.

I bet she warms up over the course of the trip.

You can also see pooh etc in AK - we found it to be a nice quiet meet and greet. So if she changes her mind you can go and see them again there.

If she has a favourite soft toy maybe take that - the characters often will make a fuss of things like that and may break the ice.

 

[LeaversOnTour]

We had a similar experince with of middle DD, she HATED them for the first week, and by the time we left she pulling on Mickey's nose to give him a kiss.

 

[joolz1910]

I really hope we can avoid melt-downs! I would love for her to enjoy meeting the characters.