OT- Those with young children.....

[Mickey's Best Girl]

I have noticed every year as the Hallowe'en decorations/accessories go up in the stores they get more and more gruesome and frightening. The large scary, life size witches, skeletons, ghouls etc. that seem to be all the rage now, some are more than 6' tall! I'm wondering if any of your young children have reacted to these items.
My DD is 17 now. When she was younger, things were much more tame.
Just curious.

 

[catycatcat4]

i think kids dont get as scared of things like that any more alot of kids seem to think its funny.

 

[daneenm]

My son is terrified of Halloween decorations. He is 8. They are just too realistic for his strong imagination.

 

[LilGMom]

As soon as we see them I tell my youngest, he is four, that it isn't real and then we go look at them together. My oldest, who is eight, used to HATE walking past the Spencer's store after they'd put up their Halloween decorations but now he'll just shrug his shoulders.

 

[DVCsince02]

My 6 y/o is very scared of them. My 3 y/o is curious about them. I personally am not a fan of those types of decorations, but to each their own.

 

[FreezinRafiki]

My 4 year old FEAKED OUT when we walked past a display in Menards (think Home Depot or Lowes for those of you outside the Midwest) a few weeks ago. They had some cute stuff on the end of one isle, but when we got closer, she saw the life sized stuff and just about crawled up my leg in fear.

 

[DVCJones]

My DD4 and DD6 love these stores. Just yesterday I had to use this to bribe them while I shopped for new school clothes and sneakers/shoes for them.

I actually told them that we would go to the Halloween store if they behaved

Although, last year when we were in there, the guy dressed up like an ape freaked my the 3yo a bit. She wasn't expecting it to move.

 

[CinderellasSister]

My kids always want to stop and play with all the Halloween decorations. They love to press all the little "try me" buttons, and get a kick out of it all. We love to decorate for Halloween, so the kids have really just been growing up around it. We don't have dripping blood and knives around, but they enjoy the signs and things that light up and scream.

 

[newmouse2008]

I agree that today alot of kids think nothing of seeing gruesome decorations. When we see things like this Stella always says to me " it's not real, right?" She is begging to go to Halloween Horror nights this year at Universal. It is not happening!! I am having a hard time explaining to her that the Pictures she sees and being confronted with the actual people even if they are fake is very different and that she is not old enough to go. We love Halloween and I have always put up alot of retro decorations.

 

[DVCJones]

I agree that today alot of kids think nothing of seeing gruesome decorations. When we see things like this Stella always says to me " it's not real, right?" She is begging to go to Halloween Horror nights this year at Universal. It is not happening!! I am having a hard time explaining to her that the Pictures she sees and being confronted with the actual people even if they are fake is very different and that she is not old enough to go. We love Halloween and I have always put up alot of retro decorations.

My kids always say this too. They like to "check in" to see if it is really safe. They do okay with identifying the real vs. fake. Although, after watching a show on Disney World attractions on the Travel Channel, my DD6 wanted to see Dinosaur on our next trip. (I had been skipping this attraction for years for obvious reasons.) I told her it was too scary and I didn't think she would like it. She insisted that she knew they were "robots" and that they were not real Dinosaurs. I thought she would forget about it. But, sure enough she didn't and insisted that she HAD to go on it and that she would NOT be afraid. (you know where this is going) Anyway, I said fine lets go...
Then of course my DD4 wants to do anything DD6 gets to do...and started to pitch a fit that she wanted to go too.

Well, they both learned a valuable lesson that day...

You should always listen to your mommy. Mommy was right, they didn't like it.

 

[spaddy]

My son is 4 and not afraid of any of the halloween decorations. He watched "Arachnophobia" and thought it was great. My DH couldn't watch and had to leave the room. He went on Dinosaur and enjoyed it. POTC, Expedition Everest, no problem.

Now, if you want him to go up to Mickey Mouse he screams and cries and throws a fit. He is terrified of the characters.

Just goes to show you every kid is different.

 

[hroyale]

Ah, this just came up today. They claimed to like it and "know it's just pretend" and begged to go in, but then DD couldn't go to the bathroom alone when we got home from the mall. We just walked through one of those halloween stores.

 

[TSWJan78]

We were out with my neice who is 12 and my nephew who is 9 today and they were not liking the decorations... however they have always been sheltered when it comes to that stuff and were scared to death when we went on the great movie ride last summer. I felt like such a bad aunt saying it was fine.. Completly forgot about the car being hijacked and the ailen part. I did learn a valuable lesson that day... Don't shelter your kids to much.. they need to know the difference between real and fake.