My kid hates pictures with characters! Help please!

[Goofy4Disney]

What do you do if your kid pretty much refuses to take pics with the characters or interact with them in any way? I mean, I don't want to force him, but it would be nice to have a few pics of DS with them. DS loves the parks, but not so into the characters (even when he was 7 yrs old!) Has anyone experienced this before? Is there a happy compromise here???

 

[Sleeping Jedi Beauty]

I don't think you can force your son to want to take photos with the character. If he wants to do it, he'll do it. If not, don't worry about it. You don't want to make him resent the characters.

 

[Brian Noble]

Have him take the pictures of you.

 

[BlindTyldak]

Don't force him, by any means. The characters are extremely adept at working with children and making them feel comfortable . . . let them work their magic and chances are you'll have some good luck.

another way is to do a character breakfast, when the characters have more time to interact with your child than they normally would standing in a line. We did a character breakfast at the Land pavillion (one of the best in the parks, IMHO) with a small child who was TERRIFIED of the characters. We let the characters know as they approached the table and they just crouched down at a comfortable distance and encouraged interaction where the child made all the moves on their own, and never reached out to touch her. we got some great pics of her honking their noses and such.

 

[PrincessLindy]

I understand you don't want to force or anything but I also understand that you want to encourage. I agree begin with a character meal of characters they really like to watch. Maybe the more relaxed atmosphere will help.

Have you tried having your picture taken? Just tell them you want yours done. They are welcome to join you or can stand back a little.

Even if they don't want to have anything to do with the characters it is still fun.

Our little Princess is fearless on rides and loves the characters. Except the Princes (sp?) when they are by themselves. Genie, beast etc are okay but face ones like Aladdin and she gets all shy and won't go up to them. They are also okay when they are with their ladies. I guess there are worse things then her being leary of grown men by themselves. Doesn't even help when Dad goes with her. He has to hold her and be between them.

 

[IndyJammer]

What are your children's ages? Because, I'm not sure if they are too small - or too big!

I suggest getting an autograph book. It gives the kids an automatic starting point with any character. Sometimes kids are just shy and don't know what to do - Knowing that they need an autograph gives them a sense of purpose - a goal!

And it's something that kids of any age can do b/c there are so many other kids down there doing it, they'll fit in! It's about the only way that my "cool" DS10 will get with the characters - plus now he looks FOR them in order to get different ones for his book!

 

[LindsayDunn228]

I guess I don't what the big deal is. There are plenty of photo opportunities in WDW besides characters. I say don't worry about it.

 

[cleo]

My DS never wanted his picture with characters and still doesn't. No big deal. It's a nice thing to do if they're into it, but if not, it's less time spent standing and more time spend enjoying other things.

But I agree with Brian Nobel...have your child take your picture.

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

My dd was frightened of the characters. She was fine as long as I was holding her in the picture and as long as the character didn't wear a mask! I pretty much avoided the ones she was scared of (such as Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, etc) and only had her pics taken with the ones she was fine with (Aladdin, Jasmine, Mary Poppins, Ariel). Characters aren't everything.

 

[MissSixty]

Unless your child is terrified of the character, get the pic any way that works, charachter in the background, that way you have a pic of your child refusing to go near the characters which in the future will be a funny memory and the pics will have a great story to go with it! My sisters kids refused to go near Santa, so there are some funny pics of the kids sitting in their stroller next to Santa, but NOT on his lap.

 

[always quiet]

See the picture in my signature? This was the ONLY way to get a picture with the characters this year...........oh well, guess they have to grow up sometime.

 

[Slapster]

Here's what you do - Find a character photo op, walk behind the character and drop something, tell your DS "Oh, I dropped that (thing), could you pick it up for me?". As he's getting the thing right behind the character, yell HEY! and as he looks up snap the picture.

 

[Accentuate+]

There's definitely a silver lining in that.
A friend and I took her son and he wanted NO PART of character interaction. I was disappointed at first until I got there and saw the lines for most of the characters. They're fun but I was glad we were on rides and seeing the sites rather than stuck in character lines all day.

We did do the character lunch at Crystal Palace. He was shy at first but by the end of it he was offering Pooh chicken fingers and telling Pooh that Tigger had misbehaved (Tigger had taken his straw and stuck it in the butter on his mother's plate) and had a ball. Got some great pictures, too.

 

[Sue Sullivan]

What would I do? I would simply not ask him to be in any pictures with characters. It's his vacation too.

 

[wdwoldtimer]

Maybe have him talk to FlowerChild...he doesn't have a problem interacting with characters at all.

 

[DisneyGeek2000]

How old is he?

 

[martinp13]

Have him take the pictures of you.

Thunder stolen! My first thought exactly.

 

[d4est]

My Ds was the same way. He is almost nine. Wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with any of them. I did have him take one picture of me. Still wasn't interested. Some kids just aren't into it. No big deal.

 

[1of6]

We found a thread around here somewhere about a month ago with things to say to the characters. DS9 loved it! He couldn't wait to see Chip and Dale so he could say hi the Alvin and Theador. Chip and Dale were so funny about the whole thing. It did help that I was into picking on some of them as well. I called Chip and Dale squirrels and they started banging their heads on the tree.

Minnie made a big scene gesturing about Mickey when DS9 asked if she had gotten a ring from Mickey yet. While we waited for our turn DS and I would try to come up with something clever to say. It kept DS engaged the whole time.

You can't force the issue. If he doesn't want to he doesn't want to.

 

[Earstou]

I understand wanting the character pictures! Last summer we went to DL and didn't run into any characters, and didn't do a meal, so no pictures. After we got home and I was looking at the pictures, I was really disappointed!
My ds doesn't like characters either, never has. We took him to WDW when he was 10. At home to prepare him (without him knowing this is what we were doing!!), we kept talking about how much fun we had at character meals in the past. I also informed him that we WOULD be doing at least one character meal for the rest of us.
Then I booked at the Garden Grill, knowing he would be fascinated by the revolving restaurant. He pretty much ignored the characters, until one of the chipmunks SAT on him! We were all laughing so hard, he just had to laugh too. Who wouldn't laugh with a huge chipmunk rear in their face!?! Then it was all okay, and I was able to get pictures!
Having time to warm up to the characters helped, plus Chip and Dale are so funny. I don't think he would have responded so well to Pooh and definitely NOT the princesses, but Chip and Dale were great.