My daughter is 5 and in preschool. My daughter tends to get scared very easily by what she sees on TV/videos and so we really limit what we allow her to see. Tomorrow they are having a 'movie day' and either watching Frosty of Rudolph. I haven't seen either of these movies in years, and I can't remember what potentially scary parts are in either of them.
What potentially scary parts are there? Which direction should we encourage her to go?
She's very excited about the whole day as they are wearing pajamas and having popcorn, so I don't want to keep her home.
Thanks!
Personally, I think if you're trying to prepare her for how to handle scary situations, she's going to be scared.
Let her sit there and watch with the rest of her friends. If they don't act scared, she probably won't. And if she does, she's old enough to find the teacher if she needs to.
.
I am sure you have done this a million times with her, but I used to ask our daughter "is that real?"
If I was reading her a book about ghosts, I would ask "Is this real?" She would answer, "No it is just a story".
Watching Tv," Is this real?" She would huff and say, "Mom, it is just TV!"...
One morning the TV was turned to one of the morning shows and they were talking about something that made me mad and I said something to the Tv like, I know you did not just say that, Good grief.. Daughter looked up from her bowl of cereal and said.. "Mom, they cannot hear you, that is just the TV"... She was 3..
If these are the versions I'm thinking of -
In Rudolph, the scariest bit was when they were trapped in the Abominable Snowman's cave (Ernie does some dental work and saves them) and when Yukon Cornelius falls off the cliff (we find out later that Bumbles(Cornelius' name for Abominable Snowmen) bounce).
In Frosty (the first one), it was when Frosty got locked in the greenhouse and melted (but Santa saved the day).
I guess you can tell her what ever plot complications they come up with, the good guys win, the bad guys lose, and everything works out alright in the end.
I just wanted to chime in and say that in the Rudolph one, the Abominable Snowmonster scared the bejeebies out of me when I was little too!!
It is hysterical to see those old cartoons now, and think that THAT was scary to me... but it WAS. lol
So just forewarn her that there might be a scary part but that everything turns out alright in the end. Our dog has a toy that looks like the Abominable Snow monster. Got it for Christmas a few years ago.... she loves it!!
They're really not scary. The most scary part of Rudolph is the Abominable Snowman, but even he's shown to be nice at the end. In Frosty, it's more suspense than scary -when they're locked in the greenhouse and Frosty is melting and then the little girl gets sick, but nothing truly scary there. Everything turns out fine in the end!
As one poster noted, prepare her with the fact that things always turn out ok. We used to tell the kids that Mickey would never make something that had a bad ending because Mickey loves kids (ok, a stretch, I know, given Disney's need to off the parents - but there is always a happy ending). So, switch it a little and tell her that Santa works his hardest to make Christmas happy for everyone and that the story she will see will show that. My son was (and still is) very sensitive to video images (he still won't watch the Little Mermaid or Wall-E and he's in 3rd grade) but he was never bothered by Frosty or Rudolph. I would alert her teacher and maybe she can sit next to the teacher or at least the teacher can be on the lookout for anxious behavior. we've asked that of a parent for some birthday parties where I had concerns that my kid would be a little frightened and its worked well. good luck.
The reindeer in Rudolph, both adults and children, are horribly mean to Rudolph. I remember that as a kid. My three year old shut it off.
Check out http://www.commonsensemedia.org/ any time something like this comes up. The reviews do a good job of IDing potential problems/concerns. Rudolph was a little too much for my 2.5yo daughter last year, but my biggest problem was the treatment of women and girls. We were asked for weeks, "Why are the girls supposed to stay at home?" It's always something, right... So if we watch anything, it's Frosty at our house. Frosty melting was sad, but less scary than the Abominable Snowman. I hope she has a great time!
