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Original poster

Anyone else a much more sensitive viewer since having children?

38 replies

70sShmeventies · 02/03/2023 21:10

I’ve just started The Last of Us and I usually love a good zombie flick but since having children I can’t help thinking what might happen to them in that scenario. I think I’m gonna have to turn off. I’ve become such a bloody wet 🤦‍♀️. Anyone else?!

OP posts:
OrionNebula · 02/03/2023 21:13

I'm the same, I used to love a good gorey horror but my tolerance for violence is much lower these days. And if anything (film, TV, book) involves anything bad happening to children I can't cope at all.

I am enjoying The Last of Us though!

DuckDuckNo · 02/03/2023 21:14

I'm the same, there's a tiny side plot with a baby and I needed to turn it off.

WandaWonder · 02/03/2023 21:16

I used to read alot of true crime and very dark crime tv/films, since having my now teenage child there are some things I can't watch

I can't define it and not always relating to children but yeah I don't read or watch the same any more

another thing is I always thought things I saw on the news was bad, since having a child I physically feel a change sometimes with certain news

Nothing dramatic just feel different

StrictlyAFemaleFemale · 02/03/2023 21:17

Yes. Don't even watch the news now.

Dammitthisisshit · 02/03/2023 21:18

DH and I watched ‘The Missing’ when DD1 was a young baby. We were devastated after every episode- I’m not sure why we continued with it!

Borgonzola · 02/03/2023 21:19

I really used to enjoy a spot of true crime but I keep finding myself telling my DP 'I just don't have the stomach for this' whenever we start watching anything.

Theunamedcat · 02/03/2023 21:24

I've rehomed books like pet cemetery not my favourite book but still now I've got children I'm not going to read it again

Duckdown · 02/03/2023 21:28

I can remember sitting crying over an episode of Coronation Street in the maternity ward after having my first! I well up over all sorts still, and that was 20 years ago.

Original poster
70sShmeventies · 02/03/2023 21:32

Glad I’m not the only one. I’ve persisted with the first episode of The Last of Us, it’s moved away from a child death but I’m sure there will be more. We shall see.

I struggled with The Cry and and anything where kids get hurt or potentially hurt.

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VikingLady · 02/03/2023 21:32

Oh yes! No more Patricia Cornwell or Kathy Reichs books for me.

CatchHimDerry · 02/03/2023 21:32

Yep, definitely a thing. Both myself and DH get emotional about almost everything these days

OakElmAsh · 02/03/2023 21:35

Yep 100% - haven't been able to watch or read anything where children are hurt or miserable since DD was born 9 years ago

CatNamedEaster · 02/03/2023 21:36

Yes me too. I started a thread on here a while ago because i was fed up of all the dramas on tv using violence or rape as entertainment.

I have no idea how to link to it, but it was titled something to do with "quality female centred drama that doesn't use violence" and people left some brilliant recommendations.😊.

Ahhaiknow · 02/03/2023 21:37

Yes but with the news not films. I empathise a lot more, eg the Nicola Bulley story affected me as I couldn’t stop thinking about her little girls and how mine would cope if that happened to me. The Syria earthquake I couldn’t stop thinking about imagine if my children were there…I relate to things a lot more?

Flangeosaurus · 02/03/2023 21:37

Can’t cope with at all any more. I managed the first episode of the Last of Us purely because DH was really keen but I’ve had to say I can’t watch any more. People keep saying how good The Handmaids Tale is and I can’t even bear the thought of watching it! Can’t read any of the many awful news stories where poor children are hurt or killed without physically feeling it if that makes sense.

Furrybutts · 02/03/2023 21:40

No, not since having children, but since the menopause I cannot watch anything distressing on TV.

I've always been very sensitive to anything to do with animal mistreatment, but now I can't even watch anything at all to do with animals incase it's cruel.

CatNamedEaster · 02/03/2023 21:40

This was it, sorry i can't do a clicky link

Can we have a "brilliant tv programmes that centre women and manage to be brilliant without using violence and rape"?

Hungrycaterpillarsmummy · 02/03/2023 21:41

Do t go and see avatar at the cinema. Both me and DH were in tears...

Ponderingwindow · 02/03/2023 21:43

I used to love the global disaster movies. I absolutely got turned off them right after dc was born. Now a teen, it isn’t quite as difficult.

I can watch something like the Last of Us because it isn’t really about the zombies, it is really a story about people and the setting helps them tell those stories. Something like Volcano or The Day After Tomorrow includes people for dramatic effect, but it is really about the disaster. I don’t enjoy those nearly as much anymore.

morekidsthanhands · 02/03/2023 21:45

I'm pleased I found this thread because I thought it was just me!
Me and my partner were both looking forward to a new season of the walking dead which was released not long after my first was born. Couldn't watch it.
In fact I couldn't even watch can't take it away at the time it got me too worked up haha.

Pashazade · 02/03/2023 21:51

Totally. Watched a lot of Criminal Minds whilst pregnant. Couldn't bare it afterwards! (Seems to be a disproportionate amount of episodes involving unpleasant things about children) Also there was a radio documentary about the Romanian orphanages that I wanted to listen to but just couldn't! I can still do true crime with no issues though....

Bunny2021 · 02/03/2023 21:55

Me too! I thought I was the only one. I literally can’t watch anything too “much”. My level of watching these days is basically RHOBH.

Bunny2021 · 02/03/2023 21:57

@Pashazade same with criminal minds. Just tried to watch the new series on Disney and couldn’t do it. I had to turn it off. Kept telling myself it was fiction but it didn’t help.

Sheitgeist · 02/03/2023 21:59

Ahhaiknow · 02/03/2023 21:37

Yes but with the news not films. I empathise a lot more, eg the Nicola Bulley story affected me as I couldn’t stop thinking about her little girls and how mine would cope if that happened to me. The Syria earthquake I couldn’t stop thinking about imagine if my children were there…I relate to things a lot more?

Same here. Fantasy/fictional stuff doesn't bother me, only real life.

I find The News very challenging!

Original poster
70sShmeventies · 02/03/2023 22:01

@Hungrycaterpillarsmummy too late! I sobbed.

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