9yo watched JAWS on sleepover

[VikingBlonde]

I've just picked up my DD from a sleepover, she's just 9 and a gentle, fairly sensitive sort. First thing she says to me is "I really didn't like Jaws mummy!" And the dad is like "oh yeah that might not have been the best choice of movie ..."

I'm fewwwmin! Jaws is a horror film. I watched it recently and jumped out of my skin a few times. And I'm not bloody well 9. There's a shed load of claret and kids being eaten alive and realistic limbs being severed and we are - to cap it all off - going on our ONLY holiday of the whole year (cos we are skint) camping at the beach tomorrow. She's already told me she won't be getting in the water when she normally loves bodyboarding. CHEERS FOR THAT!!!

The kid who's house the sleepover happened at is a child who can't have sleepovers at anyone else's cos she gets anxious and stressed if she's away from her own home so how the effing chuff have they managed to show MY kid a horror movie while she's there!!!??? Grrrrrrrr

We have had a talk about there NOT being great whites around the UK and that the film is just pretend but she just recounted the part about the little boy getting eaten and burst into tears.


What would you do?

[MerryMarigold]

My sensitive ds1 watched it on a sleepover at the age of 7. It is ds2 who's never seen it, who is scared of sharks in England .

Just be dismissive. It's tense rather than gory.

[AsAProfessionalFekko]

We watched it with DS when he was about 10/11 and he hates scary films. He only got a bit glum when the dog was eaten 'Awwwww poor dog!'.

[Poloshot]

Get real

[corythatwas]

David Attenborough sounds a sensible antidote. Or maybe some how-this-film-was-made-stuff, probably easily available on YouTube. Nothing like taking the mechanics apart to lose your fear. Mind you, that can back-fire. When LOTR was new, I tried to prep dd by showing her how the orcs fell off the battlements onto a blue bouncing mat. She was captivated by this whole world of make-believe and is now about to start her second year at drama school. Perhaps David Attenborough and STEM subjects might have been better.

[JessBradleyTheBusStopWanker]

Meh, I couldnt get worked up about this. I read the Jaws novel at 9 and saw the movie at the same time. I read The meg 15 years ago and and was thrilled to take my 13 year old and ten year old to see it in 3D last night. I was a sweaty bag of panic and they loved every second of it.

As others have said. Its a PG. I would find it hard to get worked up about this and would just reiterate that it isnt real etc. It isnt like he made them sit and watch "IT" !

[ramalamadingdong1]

Just be dismissive about it.

If you get worked up the so will she.

I couldnt get overly angry about this I’m
Afraid

[0htooooodles]

My 6 year old loves jaws...

[SheGotBetteDavisEyes]

Obviously, the thread will fill with more eye-rolling, 'what's the problem, my kids watch zombie films at 2' etc comments, but it's fairly obvious that not all kids are the same and it would be really inappropriate to show someone else's young children a film that might upset them.

None of my DC would like that - two would probably have been really distressed by it.

I think most parents are respectful of the fact that they should only show suitable films to other people's kids or at least check with them first at that age, but obviously there's some fairly thoughtless types around as well.

YANBU

[Mia1415]

I'm in my 30's and I'm too scared to watch it!

I didn't realise it was a PG. Clearly I'm a bigger wimp than I thought.

I'd echo the suggestion of someone further up the thread OP. Try and find some footage of them making the film, which might make her see how its all pretend.

[SirVixofVixHall]

I also think it was an A.A. rating, not an X, although I’m not sure when the x rating was raised to mean 18 and over, rather than 16 ? A.A. was for 14 and over. I am amazed it is a PG now, I think censorship has gone crazily slack. Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children was a 12, and really horrible, should have been a 15.
I’m with you on this op, personally I always check with parents when showing any film to visiting children. I think nine is too young for severed heads, however unrealistic, and I think that desensitising young children to gore and violence is not a good thing at all.

[brookside32]

Really you see worse in Eastenders and Emmerdale these days broadcast before 9 than you would in JAWS. Likewise Brookside used to be on at 5 o clock on a Saturday evening and was filled with violence, drugs, prostutition etc. Really a 9 yo seeing JAWS is pretty tame to what they'd see/hear at school these days with phones etc.

[LittleLionMansMummy]

Does she watch any of the Jurassic films? Ds loves them, but they're probably on a par with/ worse than Jaws. He's 7. Tbh though I'd probably be a but miffed as I'd have thought that most parents would check with a child's parents before letting them watch something like that. We even checked about Raiders of the Lost Ark because I found the ending scary at the age of 11 (loved it and still do though!)

[Glymou]

It's a PG rating.

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

I'd be seriously hacked off with the parents, too.
We first saw Jaws when living in a hot country and most of us went to the beach every weekend. After that viewing, a good many of the adults didn't feel like swimming in the any more!

To be entirely fair there were sharks in the area, though not Great Whites - as I was all too aware more than once after falling off while water skiiing - dangling in the water while dh who was driving the bloody boat took ages to come back...

[HesterShaw1]

I saw it when I was six. Yes it made me jump, but I wasn't scarred for life.

However that film has spawned the ridiculous media obsession with sharks and sharks are suffering 40 years later because of it. The chap who wrote it feels so contrite about that, he has devoted himself to shark conservation now.

More people get killed by falling coconuts, FGS.

(I do like "fewwwminn" though. Got to be said in a Valleys accent.)

[ShowOfHands]

our ONLY holiday of the whole year

You poor buggers. ONLY one?

I can't afford any holidays this year, I thought one was the norm.

Never seen Jaws btw.

[TheLongRider]

The novel is the "Book at Bedtime" on Radio 4 this week and next week. I still haven't seen Jaws, I was a sensitive child who hated scary movies, but my nine year-old DD loves it! She's currently trying to recreate it with Lego and is using DH as camera operative while she directs proceedings.

[PatrolThat]

My DS is a bit obsessed with all things ocean. He has this book it might help.

[StroppyWoman]

YABU in the strength of your reaction. I can see being a bit fed up but not so angry.

It's a 40-year old PG film by Spielberg. He's always been on the scary/tense end of things - Jurassic Park scared the bejesus out of my friend when we saw it at the pictures.

Yes, if your child was upset it was not an ideal choice, but it's not like they slapped on a slasher film.

PG means the BBFC thinks children older than 8 should probably be fine with a film.

[NutElla5x]

I was probably about the same age when I watched Jaws for the first time, and apart from checking under my bed for about a week before I went to sleep it never did me any psychological harm.Just ask my shrink if you don't believe me.

[Horrordoeurvres]

Sorry but Jaws as in the original? The effects are so bad its laughable.

Try explaining that its all movie "magic" nothing to be scared about, sharks rarely ever attack anyone especially in the UK. Maybe show her some behind the scenes type stuff on YouTube showing her how they make animatronics for movies etc? doesn't have to be Jaws just something in general to help her understand that its not real life!

Cows kill more people than sharks do, but probably don't tell her that..

[Armi]

I love Jaws. But wouldn’t show it to 9 year olds.

Some people who aren’t scared by stuff also lack the understanding that other people might be unnerved by what they just laugh at. In my experience, a complete lack of imagination is at the root of both these character traits.

[LittleLionMansMummy]

NutElla5x did you sleep in an aquarium?

[Roseandvioletcreams]

Well it's certainly not a film I would show to 9 year old on a sleep over.

However dd has been asking to watch it for ages. She's nealry 11 so maybe it's time .

[Badtasteflump]

It's not that bad - I saw it was I was around ten and it made me scared of sitting on the loo or having a bath for a while though . I saw it again recently, and although it's still a good story, the film has dated badly I think. My DC (a bit older than yours, admittedly) laughed all the way through it.

Having said that, I wouldn't show somebody else's child any remotely scary film without checking first. There are so many choices of 'safe' films, it hardly seems worth the possible fallout.