Mumsnet Talk

This is something I posted earlier....................

My DS 3.5yrs has always been a great sleeper from 4 months when he learnt to settle himself, sleeps very deeply, we were very lucky. He woke up only a handful of times before 2.5 then had a few night time wakes but easily settled. Always went to sleep on his own.

Then...watched Muppet Christmas Carol at Christmas time and a few times after and loved it, then 2 weeks ago he was watching it, while I was in next room and i heard a blood curdling scream..........thought he had bitten tongue or hurt himself but he was looking at the screen petrified. A scene with a ghost on a door knocker.That evening as soon as it went dark he started saying he was scared of the dark and could he sleep in mummys bed tonight. Totally out of character. That night he was so upset the only way to get him to sleep was lie with him singing lullabies (quite sweet the first time!).

Fast forward and 2 weeks of this, although last night I managed to sit on a chair next to his bed as he fell asleep. This part, while time consuming and always needing my DH home to have DD while I do this, isn't that much of a bind. But since that first night he wakes multiple times in the night needing us to go back to sleep. Last night was 2am, 3am then 2 more times before morning! It is now a habit but I dont know what to do (head in hands). I am planning to do the disappearing chair at bedtime, move it slowly away, but was hoping after last nights first bedtime with me in chair and not in his bed, that night waking might be better but was worst yet.

HELP!! Any advice very gratefully received

No replies as yet so any from here also gratefully received ;)

My 4 year old is scared of the WSM and evil sisters in Cinderella and also the shadow man in Princess and the Frog but he loves Scooby Doo and how to train your dragon

I bought Disney's Snow White for DS 6 last year and the minute the scary witch came on he had hysterics and we had to turn it off. I've still not re-watched it all .

One of them was scared by the nasty toon (the lawyer?) in 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'. And definitely the Child Catcher in 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'.

Monster House freaked DS (6) out a while back.

It was on the TV and he was half watching, but withing about 15 mins of the the start he actually went and switched the tv off. He NEVER does this. When I asked him why he said it made his bum shiver

I took that to mean he was freaked by it - and from what we had seen at the beginning it was VERY dark for a kids film, especially for the beginning scenes

I think some DCs are more easily scared than others. My DS is 7 and he gets scared at the slightest thing, the change in music and suspense makes him wary.

Coraline here too for both of my girls

Up, toy story 3, Madagascar 2. Beauty and the beast.

The same four year old loved brave and how to train a dragon.

Was a bit scared by a cartoon vampire film i took him to last half term, dont remember tge name of it but it was a u rating? Halloween type film but fairly tame. He enjoyed it but needed a bit if reassurance.

He loves marvel superhero type stuff and the scooby doo films. But cant cope with elmo!

I subsequently watched Brave on PPV, I didn't see the warning at the Cinema or on PPV.

It was the Bear in the scenes in the wood that were the tipping point.

DS also is frightened by Diesel 10 in Day of the Diesels. Mwahahhaha laughing.

Coraline

The exaggerated wildebeest in The Wild - they like rest of the movie.

I remember taking DS1 to see Jurassic Park 3 at the cinema. We were front row at a massive screen in Leicester Square, i was so scared I forgot all about DS, I think he coped better than me.
My DH is a bit of a film buff and showed DS1 Nosferatu (the original Dracula film). It was only a U rating so DH thought it would be fine, however it traumatised DS1 so much he was in our room every night for a week and we had to tell him we had removed the DVD from the house. He was around 7 at the time, he's 15 now and loves scary movies but still won't watch that one.

Coraline definitely. The only time I've ever had to leave the cinema before the end of a film - DD was terrified! The only other film that has terrified her like that is ET - the mere mention of ET can give DD nightmares and she's 7!

Coraline, monster house and my four year old is terrified if 'elmo goes to grouchland'!! I think because elmo loses his blankey and my ds has his own blanket and the thought of losing it is terrifying?

But he will happily watch star wars tyoe stuff. Toy story films, despicable me etc.

I agree child catcher in chitty chitty is terifying!

I know it has been said already, but I am another one with an otherwise fearless cild who is terrified of Coraline.

I had nightmares about The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe for my entire childhood

My girls are aged 6 and 8 and they were really scared watching 'Brave' , to the point where they both asked to leave the cinema. The other film that they really didn't enjoy was 'spooky dogs' - you know those films with the piles of labrador puppies in, like 'snow dogs' and 'space dogs'. Spooky dogs was really scary and totally not needed. They could have made a nice Halloween puppy film without being so scary.

We had to leave the cinema during Brave. It was too much for DS5.

He cried

Sleeping beauty. That horrible witch in it!!

Another vote for Coraline

The Hole

The Hole

Think it was a 12 rating so not for little children, but F me that was scary !

It scared me too!

DD was scared of Bruce the shark in finding Nemo ffs! She was only 5 BUT only got scared after watching it daily for about 4 weeks!

I was really surprised that my ds at 3yo found Arietty really scary and asked for it to be turned off. i think it was the tension and sense of foreboding especially when the Borrowers went on the missions to find supplies that did it.

Ironic as i'd vetoed How to Train your Dragon in favour of Arietty as Arietty was a U and the PG rated 'Dragon' had supposed scary fight scenes, but when he later watched 'Dragon' a few months later he loved it!

Also thought Brave was scary and picking up on what Melopmene said about Coraline:
"IMO the idea that someone you trust could turn nasty, or an evil/distorted version of someone you trust, is much scarier than a monster/character that is unambiguously evil" - I thought the mother turning into bear was like that! (although to be fair it was just the roaring the kids found scary!)

NoGinorWine4Mu1berry - dt1 managed to watch it again at home, and so it wasn't quite so scary with lights up, sound down a bit and I think it did help. It was the bit where the mother turns into a spider that got him, he's scared of spiders in any case.

I really didn't get that labyrinth thing, didn't find that scary at all.

I think there is a sense of pleasure to be taken from being scared when you're younger, I know even though Monster House scares my cousin he still insists on watching it...

I definitely see it with films like Snow White especially when she's making the potion to turn into the hag. Labyrinth was pretty scary aswell to be fair and was definitely one of my childhood favourites to watch nonetheless.

I think its pretty common now for films to have that form of horror in them I mean thinking back alot of the films I used to watch had moments in that were pretty dark...

Wonder why...

oh yeah the evil queen in snow white terrified me when I was little as well.