Ok, so I have recently discovered the world of "mommy-blogs" online. There are a ton of blogs written by moms about their day-to-day experiences as moms. I don't know if you've ever checked it out, but the NYTimes has a blog called Motherlode that's pretty good. I was reading it a couple days ago and got some links to some other good ones out there. One that I linked to is called Finslippy. A recent post was about the anxiety her son was having due to being read scary books in the evenings. The Motherlode blog also ran an entry asking if fairy tales are too scary for today's children. It got me thinking about it. Some of my favorite "children's" books are the Harry Potter series, and a loooove the "His Dark Materials" trilogy (the first book is "The Golden Compass" if you saw that movie advertised). But as I read them, I could not imagine letting my child read them. Maybe a pre-teen.
When I was about 6 or so I remember watching Disney's Alice in Wonderland and hiding behind my dad's (or mom's?) recliner/chair during the scene when the queen yells "Off with her head!" and Alice starts getting chased by all those creepy playing cards with legs. It still gives me the heebies. I also remember being scared by a picture book version of "The Hobbit" (or maybe it was LOTR) my dad read me at about the same age. There was a picture of when he gets his finger cut/bitten off. Gross! And very, very scary. So, all you loyal blog followers (all two or three of you!) - what books/movies/tv shows freaked you out as a child? And do you/did you/would you let your kids watch/read scary things?
1 comment:
I remember a baby sitter letting us watch 'Poltergeist' when I was around 5 or 6 and being FREAKED out by that. In general I am NOT a scary movie fan. To me, fear is one of the worst emotions to have and why would I ever PAY for that sentation. Maybe Poltergeist at a young age molded my future dislike of horror movies.
I think some scary stuff is good. It helps mold kids imaginations and I don't think we were traumatized by scary childrens stories. The Brothers Grimm are very popular in Germany, and thier works are quite disturbing. In the real Little Mermaid, she actually dies. She doesn't marry prince charming and in order to live she has to stab him in the heart.
Despite some of these obviously questionable toddler stories I think I am fairly normal. Now, Tessa will NOT be seeing Poltergeist anytime soon, but I can't wait until I can read Harry Potter to her.
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