Lions and Tigers and Bears: Shielding Scary Things

new-poster-for-oz-the-great-and-powerful-120644-470-75During the Super Bowl my five year old saw the trailer to the new Disney film Oz, The Great and Powerful. Being a huge Wizard of Oz fan, she was immediately drawn to it and  watched it a few times with me. The trailer was fairly safe, nothing stood out as frightening and even though she knew they looked different, she was familiar with many of the characters. Since watching it, she’s been talking about seeing it when it comes out in March. She even wrote down the release date on a calendar.

However, on the weekend I came across a problem. I saw a new trailer for the film which showed many scary parts and it’s pretty clear that it’s not the kids movies she is used to. So now I face the problem of making her understand that she might not be able to watch it. Instead of waiting for the release date, I decided to talk to her about it now. I explained how it might be too scary for her but she had a response to everything.

“Dad, Wizard of Oz never scared me.” (She started watching it when she was 2 before knowing what fear is)

“Well you really like Toy Story 1 and 2, but in Toy Story 3 you got scared because of the yelling monkey.”

“But when I watched it again I was ok.”

This went back and forth a few times and then she came up with a solution: we would go to the theater on that day and ask the staff if it’s too scary for 5 year olds. So for now this is what I agreed to. I’m sure many of you dads have come across this same problem. What did you do?

About Pavel Bains

I'm a father of three girls 5 and under. I used to make violent video games but after having kids decided I want to do something more meaningful that involves them. I co-founded Storypanda (www.storypanda.com), a tablet publishing platform that gets families to read, create and share kids books.

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  • realwade

    What a great question to wrestle through! I am sure many parents would have many different opinions on this. I think one thing I would say is that you don’t always have to be able to provide an answer or explanation for your children. Ideally we will do our best to explain to them but some times it comes down to the fact that we are the parents and we make these choices.

    Here is one way to handle it. Let your daughter know that you will watch the movie first and if you think it is appropriate for her to watch it then you will take her to see it. However if you believe that it is not good for her at this stage in life then she will need to wait. This is just one of many great ways to handle this!

  • KrellPW

    I agree with realwade on both points. I’ve gone to the movie and screened films in advance before taking my son. Some times he’s gotten to go see it later. Other times, he got a “you have to wait until your older.” That dovetails into realwade’s second point. There is definitely a place for “It will be so, because I’m your father and I said so.” This impresses me as potentially being one of those times.

  • http://twitter.com/pavelbains Pavel Bains

    Hey fellas, thanks for all the advice. I like the idea of screening it first. And if I have to, I’;; pull the “It will be so.”