I wasn't sure where to put this thread so I stuck it here.

First off, let me say I am NOT a fan of scary films... and by those I mean adult/scary films, not scary like the oompa loompas in Willy Wonka. :lol:

My friend just had her son's friends (all in Kindergarden) announce that they (two of them, unrelated) have seen all the Friday the 13th films, Nightmare on Elm Street and something else I can't remember. Not Halloween, but they know what those are. She and I are both HORRIFIED.

Is it just me or is it not wrong in every possible way for a kid that young to see such violent films? Do you/will you allow you children to watch them and when?

For me it's a big no and again NO... at least not until they're in High School or something.

:nono: I won't even watch them myself!!!

It took me a good month of deliberation before I agreed to take Emily to see Monster House. It was okay for her age group, but there's no way I would have taken younger kids. And that's a scary movie aimed at young kids :dunno:

My brother has always let his son watch scary/violent/sex filled movies :rolleyes: I remember when he was about 5 I found him watching Terminator 2 by himself :eek: I told him it wasn't suitable and I was turning it off and he said that his Dad said he could watch it but had to close his eyes in the scary bits!!!

I have not even watched all of those films & have no desire to do it so there is NO WAY that I would allow Eliot to watch it until he's a lot more older. If for some reason he watched it now I know that he would be a mess especially at bed time and more than anything why would I want to expose my kindergartener to such traumatic experiences!!

Those parents & Clare's brother need a couple of :slap::slap:
Some people :disbelief:

Egads, no freakin' way. They're not for kids. I can't fathom trying to explain that to kids and then dealing w/ the behavior and nightmares that come from them.

I'd say Jr. high would be ok. I think that is when I started watching them....when we'd have slumber parties. I just always remember having a gaggle of girls around when watching those vile movies :lol:

I'm one who REALLY needs to keep an eye on what's appropriate. I adore horror movies....the more horrifying the better. :popcorn: As a result, I'm hypersensitive about what I'm watching when Alex is in the room because what's mundane for me can be horrifying for someone else.

However.....Alex does ask to watch scary movies! :dunno: He's not scared by the "scary" kid movies - Monster's Inc., Nightmare Before Christmas, etc. If it's got a monster in it, it's just fuel for his imagination later. He has never woke up with a nightmare from watching a scary kid's movie. I allow him to watch very mild stuff because his temperment allows it.
I began sneaking out of bed to watch the scary movie on Saturday night at midnight at age 8 (my mom had NO idea and would have NEVER allowed me to watch the movies if I'd asked). I also read the Amityville Horror at 10....checked out by myself from the local library because the librarian knew me so well. :heee:

As for watching Nightmare on Elm Street and the Halloween movies at age 5 - too early, if you ask me. :nono: I'd allow Alex to watch the Goosebumps movies at that age.....or some of the "scary" movies on the Disney channel, but that's it.

Egads, no freakin' way. They're not for kids. I can't fathom trying to explain that to kids and then dealing w/ the behavior and nightmares that come from them.

I'd say Jr. high would be ok. I think that is when I started watching them....when we'd have slumber parties. I just always remember having a gaggle of girls around when watching those vile movies :lol:

ITA with Karri!! I remember being in Jr. High at slumber parties and watching Friday the 13th and giggling at the boobies and hiding our eyes behind our pillows when Jason came around!

Dugan is very sensitive to scary things...he doesn't even need something scary to wake up in the middle of the night (he has suffered from night terrors since he was 6 months old...it can take us 30 minutes to actually wake him up).

I LOVE those movies, but that doesn't mean that it's okay for my kids to watch them.

My nephew has been watching Braveheart since he was 3 years old. It's one of his favorite movies. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE that movie too, but that movie has more violence then some scary movies. My SIL says that it's okay because it's based on history.

It's just something that makes me so mad sometimes! DH and I went to see The Departed at the movies this weekend. About 5 minutes before the movie started, a woman walks in with 5 KIDS....all under the age of 8! That movie is violent, and they say f*** and c*** about every 2 minutes (Loved the movie BTW...one of Scorcese's best). If you can't get a babysitter...DON'T SEE THE MOVIE!!!
Off my soapbox now

I don't allow my 11 year old to watch those movies...the scariest he has seen is Carribean. We rented it and now own it and because Tylor liked it we decided to allow Alyssa to watch it with us..where we could pause things and explain what was happening. She loves Jack Sparrow...and was able to understand most of it. That said I don't know that I would just allow her to go watch the movie without that sort of explanation..and we wont' be allowing her to watch the second one as we feel it is far more violent and scary.

I hate those scary movies..I can't imagine my child watching them

No way would I let my kids watch them. Madelynn has nightmares without watching them. I can't imagine what it would be like if I let her!

No way would I let Katie watch scary movies! I hate them myself, I have a very overactive imagination and a good scary movie will keep me up for a week or more! Katie has seen monster's inc but was more traumatized by something scary in Robots than that (that was DH's doing, he believes since it is a cartoon is must be for kids :rolleyes: ).

I think I'll wait until Katie is 13 or so before I let her watch really scary stuff (and with me out of the room!). :lol:

I think it is inappropriate to let kids that age watch adult movies. I wouldn't let my kids watch them until I thought they were mature enough to deal with it and to understand that what they are watching is not real.

I'm like Shannon and love horror films, but no freaking way would I let my kids see them. That's the last thing I need.. giving my kids nightmares. :nono: When they are teenagers (middle school-ish aged, maybe?) then I'd think about it. But not before.

You know, I don't actually limit what my kids watch, Janelle LOVES Rent...

But I definitely draw the line at scary movies. 1. I do not want to be up all night cause they are having nightmares and 2. I do not watch them, I'm a wimp and I HATE them and DH is not a fan at all either...so they just aren't in the house...

I also guess I don't let them watch violent/action movies, but again, neither of us like them, so they just aren't there.

We don't let Catherine see scary things on TV or in movies. She frightens easily, even at things that you wouldn't ordinarily consider scary. Many Disney movies are even too scary in parts so we just fast-forward through those parts. Then again, she is only 2. I think it's bad enough that our military TV stations show a lot of guns & such (we get propaganda instead of commercials in between shows). I try to be mindful of de-sensitizing her to violence at a young age.

I wouldn't let Sarah watch them for a long, long time. I'm generally a scary movie wimp as it is. She's not watching any of that stuff until maybe middle school. Maybe.

I have a problem with scary movies and my kids. My DH loves them and so does my 12 yo daughter. I will object to a lot of the movies he thinks are ok for her to watch. Most of the time, I win but there have been times. He took her to see the Exorcism of Emily Rose and An American Haunting.

She can also check out movies at the library that are not appropriate. They will allow kids to check out rated R movies, which I've gotten in a number of faces about. The excuse, 'they can't police library check outs'. I've made it very clear to my DD that she is not to check out ANY rated R movies and she is good about it. She did come home with The Ring last week and I wasn't pleased. She never watched it, she said she was too scared.

Neither of my kids are scared easily by most movies, but I'd draw the line on horror films, too. Both kids (ages 4 and 2.5) have seen parts of Star Wars, and when Emma was small she watched Lord of the Rings with DH (under protest by me). He's pretty lenient, but we'd both say no way to horror movies. Not sure what age would be appropriate, though- I know we'd have very different answers to that one.

Shannon- DH is just like you. He did a book report on Amityville Horror when he was in 4th grade!

No freakin' way! Those are way too scary. I have a friend that let's her kids watch things that "I" don't think are appropriate. Harry Potter at age 2 and 3 (with nightmares) and Pirates at 4. But I have another friend who let her son watch Kong at age 4. I just don't understand it. There are so many movies out there. Why do these kids have to watch adult movies? We could watch a new kids movie every day and go for a very long time before we got through all the movies that are out.

Speaking of Harry Potter....we have the first 3 movies on DVD at home. A few days ago, he picked out the Chamber of Secrets from the cabinet and begged us to put it on. He knew it was Harry Potter (how he knew, we have NO idea....we swear he can read sometimes and it's his own little secret). We decided to play it for him yesterday....while we sat in the room with him and watched, just in case parts were too scary. He watched the whole thing....no nightmares....and this morning, brought me Sorcerer's Stone to watch. I put it on for him and watched with him again, just in case. Again, he was fine and is now watching Nightmare Before Christmas (after hours of begging :lol: ).

I think there are definitely limits - he knows some movies are just for Mommy to watch (The Ring, etc.) and he's not allowed. However, he doesn't scare easily, so I don't have a problem with him watching mild stuff with supervision.
I also think it definitely depends on the child. I know kids who are older than Alex who would really be scared by Nightmare Before Christmas!

Yeah, I think there are certain movies that are just fine for kids to watch, if you know there "scare" level. I have been reading the Harry Potter books to Dugan at night ever since he was about 3. He has just always had an interest in Wizards and magic. So he has seen all the Harry Potters and he is just fine with them. Loves Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. To me those are alot different then horror movies. Fantasy movies may have imagines that are strange and can be frightening to a child, if you know your childs limitations, I think that those movies are fine (I lump Star Wars movies into Fantasy). But Horror movies and scary Science Fiction movies are a completely different story!!

I won't let David watch them at this age. His imagination is to powerful and it runs away with him at times. When he gets older (not sure what age, I will determine as he grows up when it will be the right time) he can watch them. I have watched all of those movies and the only one that really bothers me is Friday the 13th...not sure why...but I have never been able to watch that movie without having terrible nightmares!! :blush:

No way would I let Maggie watch that stuff. I am scared enough by those movies! :lol:

Even the Disney movies are scary at times. A few months ago, Maggie was in daycare in the "under 3" room and they put on Beauty and the Beast for the kids to watch. Apparently she and another girl got scared and they had to turn it off. I think those first few scenes with the wolves in the forest are too much for a kid who's not quite 3.

I thought I had the only 2yr old who watched Harry Potter :shuffle: Chamber of Secrets is his favourite, mainly b/c of the flying car. And he normally gets bored with it before the spiders,which I think is the only really scary part in that one. I wouldn't classify Harry Potter as horror :dunno: The boys haven't seen Goblet of Fire but Emily has and she wasn't scared at all. Probably b/c we'd already read the book.

I thought I had the only 2yr old who watched Harry Potter :shuffle: Chamber of Secrets is his favourite, mainly b/c of the flying car. And he normally gets bored with it before the spiders,which I think is the only really scary part in that one. I wouldn't classify Harry Potter as horror :dunno: The boys haven't seen Goblet of Fire but Emily has and she wasn't scared at all. Probably b/c we'd already read the book.

Dugan also LOVES the flying car and the spiders!! He really loves when the car is crashing into the spiders!
We had read Dugan Goblet of Fire as well, but we were not sure how graphic the movie was going to be so we went and saw it first. We weren't sure how he would handle the scene with Voldemort coming back to life in the theatres so we waited for him to see it when it came out on DVD. He had no problem with it at all. But yes, ITA with Harry Potter not even coming close to be linked in with horror movies.