roller coasters & young kids

[aliceindisneyland]

I think it's all in the parent's presentation--I don't use the word "scary", I don't lie (Yes, it goes really fast!), and I interact with them as much as possible during the ride (Look! Here comes another hill!)
DS 6 was a roller coaster fiend before my grandma started getting into his head with her stories about how scared she is of roller coasters -- now it takes a lot of coaxing to get him on anything. For DD 3 (who escaped Grandma's stories thanks to a firm discussion) anything goes--she blows raspberries as we go by the Yeti on Matterhorn

 

[imp&pixie]

It all depends on your children's personalities. My 5.5 year old DD's favorite ride is Space Mountain (she even wants the ride music as her ringtone when she gets older). But she's not so sure about the Matterhorn, mostly because the Yeti scares her (and, yes, we do call him Harold and tell her that he is friends with the princesses.) My DS first went on Space Mountain at WDW when he was almost 6 and he hated it (mostly because the seats at that time were single and I was behind him holding my hands on his shoulders because I was nervous.) The Space Mountain at Disneyland has two people sitting next to each other and I had learned my lesson from my son's experience so I didn't grab DD when we went on it.

My DD loves Tower of Terror but DS didn't want to go on it during our last trip so he went off with DH and I took DD onto ToT. Different kids...

 

[jodywgirl]

I think alot of it depends on the kids and there personality. I took my girls to disneyland when they were 4 and 8. My four year old was just barely old enough to ride the bigger rides but loved them while my eight year old was a little nervous. I was nervous too because on several of the rides she had to be by herself since they were just two seats. If I had it to do again I would of just bypassed the ones that we couldnt' all sit together there is still plenty to ride. I think the only one that did enjoy the rides was my little one. Still to this day my oldest is a little nervous to ride them and she is 21.

 

[GrandBob]

I have always gone on space mountain...Last year we went after the referb and I screamed, cried, and was terrified for hours after. However my kids 9 and 16 at the time and they loved it....