To think Doctor Who and Star Wars are too scary for ds aged 2.5??

[TheBestMum]

Because dh thinks they ok and wants to 'bond' with ds whilst watching.........
I think both programmes are highly unsuitable for ds age as really quite scary in places, esp Dr Who. AIBU??

[TheLadyEvenstar]

people being killed and / or tortured = ok

They are exterminated and deleted in Dr Who

(massive fans here so i would say yes let her watch it, i even get ds2 to sit with us

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

DD3 is 6 and a half and I don't let her watch Dr Who. She is prone to nightmares though. DD2 started watching it at six. I can't see why anyone would want to let a two or three year old watch it though.

[threeandcounting]

Ds(6), DD(4) and Ds (2) all watch it! We watch Dr Who as a family and the dc's never have nightmares!

[Desiderata]

What a bizarre take on it, Franny.

Small children are quite violent, if you hadn't noticed. And Dr Who is hardly a bloodbath. It's a classic tale of right beating wrong .. of good conquering evil.

Perhaps you ought to try watching it?

[FairyMum]

I don't let any of mine watch it and DD is 9!
I partly think they wil enjoy it more if they wait. I think probably 10-12 is a good age.

[Tinkjon]

YAdefinitelyNBU! But then I caused a bit of controversy some time ago by asking on this thread AIBU to refuse to let 5yo DD watch it I'm the biggest Who fan around, but no way I would let a child of that age watch it. Not because of the violence (it's not really violent - you don't see people being killed/tortured and Dr Who himself is famously pacifist. But it is scary and the themes and emotions are far too old for a young child to deal with, imo. DD does watch it now and is obsessed by it but there are some episodes which I won't let her watch and I would never let her watch an episode without having seen it first. I mainly don't like her watching it because she talks all the bloody way through it though and ruins it for me

[Niecie]

Star Wars isn't that really scary although Star Wars III (the last one) is a 12 rating so definitely not that one. I would have thought the issue with Star Wars is that they are full length feature films and therefore your DS is unlikely to sit and watch much of it anyway.

Definitely not Dr Who though - that is scarier imo and my two DSs have watched both. DS2 (5.3yrs) is still not keen on Dr Who and can be scared but is quite happy with Star Wars. DS1 is 8 and loves it all but even he is still watches bits of it from the safety of behind the door so he can duck out of sight if he doesn't like something.

[Claire236]

ds (almost 4) has just discovered Star Wars having caught the last 30 mins or so when they were showing one of them on TV. He loved it & is now totally obsessed with all things Star Wars. As I'm not interested in them at all I've had to trust dhs judgement of whether they're suitable viewing. I do worry about ds watching anything that scares him after I read an article saying children of that age can't differentiate between scary things which are fictional & those which are real. Apparently even if a parent is with the child & explains that it's not real & nothing to be scared of the childs reaction is still the same as if they'd been on their own.

[KayHarkerIsGlum]

None of mine have a problem with most of New Doctor Who, but my youngest girl won't watch Tom Baker videos because she thinks it's too scary. Give them CGI monsters, not a problem. A man wrapped in green bubble wrap and we're in nightmare territory.

[worleywinterwonderland]

ds2 (2.6)loves dr who and gets excited if he sees any pictures of hears any dr who music.

he hasn't seen starwars but think thats to long to hold his attention anyway. his older brother has the clone wars cartoon/film but he's not interested in that though

[terramum]

which star wars film is it?

[coppertop]

As others have said, it depends on the child. Dd is 2 and likes to watch Dr Who with her brothers. OTOH I remember when ds2 was that age we had to record it and take turns watching it while the other one took ds2 out or upstairs because he didn't like it - until the day ds2 suddenly decided that he wanted to watch it and then became obsessed.

[grumpalina]

We watched Dr Who as a family. DS then aged 2 became obsessed by it and I ended up with four sonic screw drivers so we would never be without one. He is now 4.5 and his obsession is with Star Wars which I find as dull as ditch water.

Both him and his brother who is 4 years older have ended up playing either Star Wars or Dr Who with DS2 always having to play the good guy.

Depends on you what you let your child watch but some kids love that sort of thing. I have a friend whos 10 year old isn't allowed to watch Dr Who because he has nightmares about it. (Bizarrely the only thing DS2 had nightmares about was when he saw Chicken Little - he woke up screaming in the night that he was being attacked by a giant chicken!!!)

[FrannyandZooey]

"no sex or swearing" lol
it confuses me how people make decisions as to what is ok for their children to watch

someone saying a rude word = not ok
someone taking their clothes off = not ok
people being killed and / or tortured = ok

[BarrelOfMonkeys]

It's a bit convoluted to find, I stumbled across it by accident.

As you go into the main BBC Doctor Who website, you need to select the series you want from the menu on the left of the screen, and then the list of episodes for that series should appear as a drop-down menu.

When you click on an episode, on the far right of the screen you should see some grey menu buttons, one of which is 'features'. If you click on that, a drop down menu appears below and the Fear Forecast is the third item on the list. HTH.

[SpandexIsMyEnemy]

star wars no,

dr who yes, DS has always watched it -I used to have it on during the day when he was a NB, so he's sort of grown up around it. he's not a violent child in any way doesn't have any night terrors which are noticeable.

we watch it and then he goes to bed, he has a dalik bubble bath which he likes to push around the room saying 'exminate'

it's up to you. (I should say he's not watched all of them, but he only sees DT as the dr - could pose a prob)

[Tigurr]

PS - BarrelOfMonkeys - whereabouts on that site is the "Fear Forecast"? I can't see it - sorry!

[Tigurr]

DD is 5y3m and has been watching Dr Who for about 6 months now. HOWEVER, we carefully vet which ones she watches - so she's watched things like "Voyage of the Damned", "Midnight" but not "Blink" (hell, even I am scared of that one!).

She knows that the "monsters" are just people in "dress-ups", as DH has a DoctorWho or SFX mag where there's a whole bit about it.

I think DH tried her on Star Wars a year or so ago and she wasn't interested but she might like it now. Not that I'm going to suggest it to him as I can't stand the wretched movies!

[BarrelOfMonkeys]

For Doctor Who, on the BBC website, they have a panel of kids reporting on how scary each episode is. You can find the 'Fear Forecast' by clicking on the episode you're interested in and then the features button on the right: e.g www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/episodes/S4_09 The youngest on the panel is 7, so 2.5 may be a bit on the young side, but you might be able to find some that aren't rated as being too scary and be selective which ones you watch.

[MollyCherry]

DD is 4.3 and terrifed of Scooby Doo (which they have been known to watch at nursery ) and Numberjacks.

She has seen a few bits of Star Wars over the last few weeks though, and loves it. Darth Maul apparently reminds her of the episode of Peppa Pig where they have their faces painted like tigers, and a couple of days ago went into the sitting room to find her brandishing the cardborad tube from the turkey foil at Daddy and making light sabre noises...

That said, I wouldn't have purposely let her watch it (me cooking, Daddy in charge and by the time I got into the room she wouldn't let me turn over!), and certainly don't let her anywhere near Dr Who as it used to terrify me (until I developed a crush on Peter Davidson!)

[MillyR]

Some of them are scarier than others. The phantom menace is the least scary, so that would be the most suitable.

[Desiderata]

My ds was hooked on Dr Who at that age, and remains so.

Let dh do what he wants. There's no sex or swearing, after all.

I never let ds watch Eastenders though
That is scary!

[Heifer]

I let my DD watch Star wars way before I let her watch DD, in fact she was 3 when she saw stars wars, and it was only this Christmas that I let her watch DW and she is just 5. She loved it..

so much in fact that we both watched a couple of episodes on Watch this afternoon and I must have looked at little shocked at something, as she said Mummy don't be scared , it is only people dressed up....

[ABudafulSightWereHappyTonight]

DS is 7 and has gone through his Star Wars phase - lasted from around age 5 to about a year ago.

We don;t get BBC (are in Budapest) but have noticed it on other channels. I watched one and was a bit jumpy so no way am I letting him watch it. Star wars a lot less scary but def not for a 2.5 year old!

Plenty of time for that.

[norksinmywaistband]

MY DC love star wars and DD loves Dr who( we always rpreview the episodes though) they are 4 and 2.9