Titanic - normal for six year old?

[Ohgoonthenillhaveanother]

Hi all my son has recently decided he’s interested in the Titanic (historical event not the movie). He’s 6 and I wondered if this is a normal interest for his age? He’s not obsessive about it/will happily pick it up and put it down but he is quite interested in reading about it and making up games about it. Has anyone else had this with their child or anything similar? He is NT as far as I know. AIBU for thinking this is a bit odd or am I overthinking it? Anxious first time mum

Mine went through a three month obsession with the building of the channel tunnel. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Just one of those things.

Thanks for your reply. Is your son NT?

Dd did a term at school about the Titanic at that age. We had to watch the film and numerous documentaries at home. Plus family learning project for school homework

Perfectly normal imo.

Totally normal in my experience. Don’t worry!

I was interested in all sorts at that age:

The Titanic (and other tragic seafaring tales)
The Black Death
Jack the Ripper
Convict ships to Australia.

🤣

I am ND, but there are loads of kids with interests like this who aren't. They're just interesting topics, and kids have vivid imaginations!

ETA: I turned out just fine. Though I am a historical/gothic fiction author!

I watched it not long after it came out so I must have been about 6/7. I really enjoyed it and it’s probably one of my favourite films. I do remember feeling a bit weirded out by the sheer number of people that died.

As long as you don’t think he will be too distressed by it then I think it’s fine.

I remember begging my mum to get me a heart of the ocean necklace from the newspaper for months afterwards

DD did a project on the Titanic in Yr1, she absolutely loved it!

I work on a library and can confirm that I regularly get asked for books about the Titanic by similar aged boys. Another frequent request that surprises me is flags.

Isn’t it on the curriculum at school? I know my dc learned about it around this age

Titanic was a year 2/3 topic at school in our area. It can be kept age appropriate.

My friend’s son asked for a titanic birthday cake when he turned 7. At the same time a colleague had a similar aged child who was also fascinated by it.

I remember repeatedly loaning out a brilliant Eyewitness Guide (remember those?) from the library about the Titanic as a young child. I found it fascinating.

Thanks everyone I feel slightly more reassured now that it’s not as odd as I first thought. It just seemed odd when lots of his mates just want to talk about Mario and Minecraft but he wants to play titanic. Most of the other kids have never heard of it. The I fell down a google rabbit warren where it was telling me that he must have autism

Why would you be anxious about this? It’s great he’s interested in history. So was I at that age and later it developed into an interest in world war 2 and the holocaust (around age 14). I’m 44 now and still as interested in it all as I ever was, and also interested in true crime. Yes some find the darker side of it all weird but as far as I’m aware I’m a perfectly well balanced, normal person.

There are loads of great books for kids about the Titanic. I remember DD getting one from thr library written from the perspective of a child on board that she read over and over again.

A family member told me they thought it was odd. But it’s not like he’s fixated on it and it’s the only thing he’s interested in. He requested a Roald Dahl book for bedtime tonight despite having been given a new book on the Titanic by a family member recently

My son's Montessori did a project on it because so many of them were into it (well, there was a clear ring leader 😆).

They were four at the time.

Ours do a whole topic on Titanic at that age as there’s lots of relevance with the local area. They don’t seem too traumatised by it but from an adult perspective I do see it’s a bit alarming. I was talking to a 9yo the other day who told me she hated the movie because of all the kissing but her brother loved it 😆

DS was very interested in the Titanic at the same age. I promised I’d take him to the wonderful museum in Belfast, but somehow never got round to it. He loved reading about all sorts of disasters actually.

Come to think of it, I had a friend who was obsessed with the Titanic when I was at infants school. We must have been around the same age.

I once stayed in a hotel that had a giant bouncy castle shaped like the sinking Titanic for kids to play on.

Come to think of it, I was always really interested in the Second World War when I was younger. But then I think I was older than 6. Was just surprising that he’s interested in it so young. He only came across titanic as he was watching a clip on YouTube about the fire of London which they have just done at school. He was very interested in that but titanic seems to have beaten that 😂

If he's still interested and you're close to Leeds there's a travelling titanic exhibition coming (it's here over Easter and a bit beyond) ask me how I know ? My ND did a project in it at school when he was 6/7 and he's still interested (now 22 ! So off we're going .....)

My son loved building stuff as a 4 year old- spent hours building with wooden bricks,{The school had a wonderful supply of them} making lintels for windows and putting 'roofs' on- I thought nothing of it til the school {Nursery} called me in over it.

Interest in architectural things or ships or dinosaurs is fine.

Just feels like everything can be attributed to ND these days. Or at least that’s what the internet tells you. Can anyone else sympathize with this?

My DS was into the life and works of Van Gogh at age 6 or 7. Don't think it's that unusual. He's now 21 and does well on van gogh questions at quiz nights