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?

I love Jaws, one of my favourite films. I do find it (still) a bit scary but it’s suspense not gore. That bit near the end where they’re sat in the boat at night waiting gets me every time!

As a child it bloody terrified me. My parents made me watch it when I was about 7 and I had nightmares for months!

I admit I am not good with scary films.

But yes it’s a PG so don’t think you can be too cross.

Sorry, I see it’s now a 12a.

Still, they didn’t show her a 15. They probably thought a 12a would be suitable but agree they shouldn’t make that decision of they don’t know the kid that well.

I didn’t let dd play dirty dancing at a sleepover over once as it’s a 15 and they were only 14. Dd had seen it and loved it, I think it’s very tame for a 15 but not my decision.

It just seems a really strange choice of film when other people’s children are around- nothing wrong with these parents deciding their own child was fine to watch it, but surely you’d realise some children might not be?

My dd is 9 too and there is no way I would let her watch Jaws. Firstly because I know my dd and she would hate it and have nightmares, secondly because there are a million other films she could watch and enjoy that don't have severed heads and limbs and blood - I know it's dated but I don't think that matters tbh, it's still technically a horror movie and when it originally came out at the cinema was aimed at adults, not 9 year olds, for a reason. The fact that some dipshit reckons it's now deserving of a PG rating is a bit stupid imo . If dd wants to watch Jaws when she's older that's fine, but 9 is too young, and what's the rush anyway?? I think at a kids sleepover if you are a responsible adult you put on a dvd that you know the kids will enjoy without scaring the more sensitive ones shitless - or check with the parents first - it's not like there aren't loads to choose from so it need not be a big deal . So I don't blame the OP for being pissed off, I would be too. Actually I know my dd would leave the room if she was at a sleepover and they put on a horror film, which would make her feel self conscious and upset. Not all kids are the same.

I loved Jaws when I saw it as a child. Nightmare on Elm Street on the other hand terrified the 10 year old me!

When I was a kid it was never really policed what I watched, if I got scared over a film but mum would probably say "never mind" and that would be that. I remember having sleepovers with my friends and scaring ourselves silly, it was just fun. I understand all kids are different but she'll get over it, if you feed into it it'll just make it worse

My mum*

Can't believe ppl saying they would dismiss a child who was scared by patting it on the head!

I can't believe that people would blow a child being a bit scared into such a mains drama. But we're all different clearly .....

if you feed into it it'll just make it worse

^^exactly this

I used to watch it on my own at 9yo on betamax vid every afty after school. LOVED it. Come on. There's far more noxious stuff out there.

Only bit that used to freak me out was the severed head popping out of boat underwater.

Ace film.

I agree with OP and woyld be upset too.

Now that I think about it, I was a similar age when I first watched 'Poseidon Adventure', which is far more harrowing and only 6 of the passenger survive in the end. But my siblings and I loved it and used to watch it every day on Betamax as well like you did with Jaws, @hottotrotsky happy memories there.

The film that scared me the most, though, curiously enough, was 'Wizard of Oz', which I first watched at 8 years old, especially the tornado sweeping the house away. I was terrified of the wind for weeks afterwards.

You're gonna need a bigger boat...😂.
I would probably check with parents before letting kids watch that movie, but I wouldn't go heap shit about it.
Shark is rubber, and dead obvious.
People mentioned the Exorcist ( no I wouldn't let kids watch it! ), but I ruined that film for DH as I kept laughing...it was so ridiculous!

I watched it with DS (8) and DD (6) atbthe weekend. As soon as it finishes we watched Jaws 2. They both loved it!

In fact we are going to watch The Meg together on Monday

Yeah, bad decision on their part.

Mind you, I can kind of see how it happened. Fear is a such an incredibly personal thing, and it can be easy to assume that if you or your child aren't scared, no-one else will be. Of course, it doesn't work like that at all; witness how I get wasp-phobic DH to catch spiders for me while I put the wasps out for him!

But if this girl's dad hasn't thought about it that carefully and simply thinks of her as the most sensitive of her friendship group (because she's too scared to go on sleepovers), I could see how he might have assumed the rest of the kids would all be fine with any film she could handle. Shame it's more complex than that.

Really? It's a PG and hardly a porno5or a genuine horror/gorefest! DC will survive I'm sure

Just to add DS 7 almost 8 yo loves Jaws as I've tried to foist my childhood passions onto my lot. ET rules tho as far as throwback kids' films are concerne in my house. Yeah I know Jaws isn't technically a kids' fim...

Gonig back to Jaws tho one of the best scenes ever in a film is where Richard Dreyfus, Roy Schneider and Robert thingummy's characters are pissed on the boat and sing "show me the way to go home"... before Jaws attacks said boat. Absolute quality.

Scousers love to fume. Or fewm in this case.

The Robert Shaw blood in mouth unsettled me. I was 9

9 is the prime age for Jaws i thought?! That’s when we all watched it. My 4 year old has watched it!

My parents took my brother at age 7 which, they acknowledge, may have been a slightly poor parenting choice.

My brother, who is a lot older, then rented Jaws and The Dark Crystal when we got the first family vcr. So I saw it at about five. I have no memory of The Dark Crystal.

It’s my favourite film of all time.

I’m not saying I wasn’t slightly traumatised, it was a long time before I put my head under the water in the bath to rinse my hair...

BUT! It was a rite of passage for me and I’ve never forgotten it.

I feel quite emotional now, I have no idea how this post will help except to say scary films are another rite of passage many of us experience for the better. At the end of the day it’s a buddy adventure with the heroes winning.

Slightly derailing the thread here, but the discussion of whether Jaws is a PG or a 12 and whether that certificate is appropriate started me thinking about how odd some certificates are.

I'm currently watching Jonathon Creek on Netflix. It's one of the really old ones when Caroline Quentin was still in it. Ok, so somebody's just been found dead in a locked room. Look's like he's got a sword going through him. But it's basically comical stuff.

It's a 15!

The scariest thing so far is how young Alan Davies looks.

It turns out that the version CH4 and Netflix are currently showing is the original A now (PG) version. So the chances are that that is the version OP's daughter saw. Not the newish 12A 2012 re-cut.

We used to watch nightmare on elm street and hellraiser when we had sleepovers

@GerdaLovesLili Repeating myself to you here but anyway.... The 2012 version and 1975 versions are IDENTICAL. There are no extra scenes at all. The BBFC gave it a new classification in 2012 for its re-release. It is not a recut, despite you stating twice that it is.

I bet if most of you were asked what certificate the original Ghostbusters is you would say PG. Nope, not any more. That was re-classified as a 12A in 2011 and is a 12 on blu ray. There are no extra scenes in that, either.

Well then C4 and iMDB are lying when they say it's a PG.