to think places have gone too far with Halloween themed ‘fun’ for children.

[MapleTreees]

It’s half term for us and all the local attractions seem to be Halloween themed. My kids (aged 10&7) are very sensitive and hate anything scary. One is particularly scared of skeletons but cartoony ones might just be OK.
So we went out yesterday, not realising an industrial museum might be Halloween themed and they were just terrified. I walked round and could feel my daughter jump whenever there was a new surprise.
It wasn’t just cartoony fun, there were headless zombies etc.

Have places forgotten that children are children and not all like quite graphic horror? I don’t think the thought of showing such things to young kids a couple of decades ago would have been considered OK?

We had to abandon the visit as they would only look at the ground and were just hating it.

AIBU to think this is too much for a child themed event or do I need to toughen my kids up?

We had another place last year where they thought it appropriate to jump out at the end of our visit around a stately home to have a blood covered masked up butcher pig jump out from behind a door wielding a chainsaw. We had no warning this would happen.
I just can’t get my head around this being OK for kids.

I agree. That skull is awful and not cute Halloween themed at all. My DC both quite like Halloween but they are also easily spooked by genuinely scary stuff and would hate that. An image like that would stay with my 6yo and really upset her.

some people round us make their houses genuinely really frightening too

My daughter was the same. Very scared of anyone dressed up or with their face covered. That fear started from watching The Wizard of Oz when she was little, a film I didn’t consider would scare her so much. So yes, I think the Halloween stuff is very inappropriate for children and we avoided Halloween completely when my kids were young.

I hate to be a prude but I agree.

Some of the houses around us are pretty terrifying - one has what looks like a body wrapped in bloody fabric hanging out of an upstairs window.

Hard to avoid when out and about when it’s people’s house too.

I love Halloween but I absolutely agree. That head in the picture is really grisly and scary.

I agree - it’s not prudish in the slightest to think this adult-level horror film approach is inappropriate for children.

I agree.

I think the Halloween activities are fine because you make an informed choice if to attend or not.

But that picture is a scary head placed in a museum showing an old style kitchen. It has no relevance and is unnecessarily performative.

It can be too much. As a family we really love Halloween but for younger kids it should be about cute pumpkins rather than horror content.

There’s a big difference between pumpkins and cobwebs, and severed heads and chainsaws.

I think they’re going to need to learn to tolerate the first but agree with you that the second should be for adult only environments.

Agree. There is a place for adult
horror and a reason why films have ratings. Some people enjoy it but it shouldn't be shoved in everyone's faces. I would have had nightmares about that skull as a child.

I think you are right. And this wasn’t happening a couple of decades ago when my dc were small. Some pumpkins,Mayes. But not chain saws and blood. In fact I can remember once seeing a woman dressed in a blood stained wedding dress in her garden at Halloween and thinking ’blimey, that’s a bit scary’ whereas now that would be nothing.

Yeah it’s a good point that it can frighten children. I don’t have kids and haven’t taken any out on day trips recently, so hadn’t thought about it from that POV but yes you’re right.

I don’t even watch horror movies as an adult because it gives me nightmares. It’s very difficult to unsee certain things so I don’t think it should be forced upon people. Especially kids.

I do think it’s a trend we’ve unfortunately copied from the U.S. like we do with so many things.

Yes I agree - I have a teen and was browsing the cinema listings to encourage them out. But even the PG films are scary themes for Halloween and look too scary for me let alone them. I don’t get it at all. And I’d be angry if I saw that head or someone with a chainsaw in a museum type environment with no warning.

YANBU- I don’t like the skull.

Mine love Halloween/Autumn themed days out, and we’ve booked loads this week. However, they were very clearly marketed as such, and are definitely at the cuter end of spooky (mine are 5 and 8).

You should definitely be able to visit places like museums that are Halloween free, they do need to advertise if they will be Halloween themed so you can decide as a family beforehand. I don’t remember as a child everywhere being Halloween themed either.

I LOVE Halloween but I completely agree that the horror style stuff is far too much and entirely I appropriate for a family-friendly halfterm attraction! I’d have been really upset as a child and like a PP unable to “unsee” such things.

Makes you long for the days, before all this American tat arrived, when we just did Guy Fawkes, and just celebrated effigies of men before we hurled them into a bonfire..😉

I love Halloween but I’d always expect child friendly venues to maybe put some pumpkins or skeletons out, nothing too freaky or likely to frighten younger children. We go on a skeleton trail every Halloween, I’ve attached an example of what they do. That’s about the level I’d expect.

It wasn’t happening here at all to this level, but I stayed in the U.S. back in the second half of the 00s and it was already very big there. It’s something the retailers and businesses have seized on in both U.S. and now here as another way to make money. All this money being spent on elaborate decorations and costumes and places able to hold Halloween themed events and parties which can be very profitable.

I read recently that Halloween has become bigger (more profitable) than Christmas for these attractions, it seems they are very popular, so you can't blame them.

Agree OP, we went to Berkeley Castle recently and my 3yo who is a bit scared of spiders was not at all comfortable with the huge furry neon spiders on the furniture! Or the spider ‘skeleton’ in the dungeon! And my 6yo who is quite sensitive was shaken by a chest with a skeleton getting out of it like a coffin… I don’t know what they were thinking.

Worst of all their ‘Halloween event’ wasn’t even supposed to be on until half term, we purposely went the weekend before it was advertised to miss all the ‘spooky’ stuff!

Spooky fun is ok, but the picture is pure horror 😣

Yes, I agree that's too far. We're going on a trip this half term and were considering booking something Halloween themed. But reading the descriptions, even the so-called child-friendly events that weren't horror-themed still leaned too heavily into scaring people, rather than simply being a bit spooky or gross.

Our neighbour where we used to live put a grotesque zombie in her garden. It had a motion sensor that went off randomly, so tons of kids assumed it didn't move then got terrified at some point. It was on the main path through the village so she was a monumental dickhead to have that out. Ironically, she was also one of those old moaners who complains on Facebook about everyone else's behaviour in the village.

Agree it has got way too out of hand

YANBU. I love the pumpkin patches and mellow Halloween fun. But anything extreme should definitely come with a warning. Even I’d be terrified of something scary popping out at a standard stately home visit if it wasn’t marketed as a Halloween visit!
my 4yo is very sensitive so we only go to the most mellow Halloween events.

Yes to this! My children are both quite sensitive to scary, horror things (which I think is completely normal, I don't like it either!) so we're really careful about where we go this time of year.

When they were younger we went to a toddler/preschooler age play barn and it had really horrible, scary decorations, including one that kept saying "I'm coming to get you!". I heard a lot of other parents also commenting but I actually asked for a refund and explained why - my children wouldn't do any of the activities or even look around. I wouldn't normally be so upfront like this but I thought it was important to "vote with my feet".