To be hypersensitive to violence now i have children

[lucyellensmumagain]

Or is it just my age??

I would quite happily watch slasher movies and all sorts of violent films before - tbh, once i grew out of my teens and early twenties didnt really care for them - yawntastic.

But now - i have lost count of the times that i have had to make DP turn off films because i have not been able to cope with the violence. Sometimes its ok, but it depends on what is going on - but i just find it upsetting. I remember watching wolf creek a few years back - i was fucking traumatised, i didnt realise really what i was watching (having switching on a third of the way through) and then had to bloody well see it though to the end hoping for some sort of good ending, their wasn't one - i promise you, it fucked with my mind! I would have shrugged it off before. I can't even watch stupid horror flicks like Scream - i get upset by it - not scared, just upset.

Bruce willis films are banned, general cops and robbers films are dodgy, i even made DP turn off lethal weopon over xmas. There was something on the TV the other night and some guy was screaming, i was on the lap top and coudlnt stand it, i had to go to bed!!

DP thinks im barking!

I'm exactly the same! To be honest, these days, I have to turn something off if I think there is even the potential for violence! And I also don't like watching people being humiliated or embarrassed on TV.

I used to feel silly about this, but now I'm rather proud of it

me too. but there is so much in tv and films these days its getting harder and harder to avoid.

i swear people are getting sicker

Me too - although I don't mind action films like Lethal weapon, but any horror or darkly violent films (like no country for old men) and I have to turn over/leave the room/bury nose in laptop and MN.

But then I also once cried watching a cow being milked. I really felt for her.

I don't mind seeing it so long as the DC aren't around.

However I really freaked out at DD's preschool last week after she started using her umbrella as a gun on Ds 'saying 'kapow'

Having children seems to switch on some hyper-empathy function. YANBU.

I think it's because, until we've had children ourselves and know what it is like to bring a new life into the world.
All these films are just a 'waste of life' even if they are not real.
Those people, even the evil ones have/had a mother and father.
Oh, dear, got me started now

I haven't noticed any difference.

Ripeberry - are you having a laugh?

Does the mean uncle in the lion king make you cry too?

I am the same! I used to love the Scream trilogy and the trashy teen slasher films like Wrong Turn, but the first time I tried watching Scream after DD was born, I freaked out. Just at the first scene where Drew Barrymore's parents come home and find her hanging from the tree...couldn't watch it any further than that, despite having seen it a ridiculous amount of times before. You see everything through the eyes of a parent I guess!

exactly tootsie, i watched that and was horrified - i think that was the first time i realised something had changed!! lol

Me:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/feeling_depressed/888364-What-is-happening-to-me?msgid=18178136

I watched a film called Silent Hill about 4 yrs ago and it deeply disturbed me (nothing like that had happened before). Then suddenly I was hypersensitive to everything.

I think we're just fruitloops LucyEllens

I'm the same, but I do think they have become worse with the gornography. I mean Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer and the like are no where near as disturbing as Saw and Hostel IMO. However, I became hypersensitive to the gore before I had DS, probably when I was about 19/20. I attribute this to me gaining more empathy as I left my sullen, "don't care" teen years behind me.

Although in a very unusual move for me, I really enjoyed Silent Hill (TBH I think it's because I enjoyed playing the games, and I knew what to expect.)

Lion King is a cartoon.....tut..tut

It's not violence that gets me, it's all the apolcalyptic end of the world stuff that really bothers me, I just worry about how the dc would survive. Dh started going on about 'the road' and I had to keep stopping him as I couldn't stop sobbing.

The stupid thing is that I manage a child protection team and deal with all sorts of abuse of childen day in day out ( sometimes get a teeny bit snivelly), but I manage this much much better than the ridiculous films .

yep - probably victoria, i do suffer from anxiety - lol

But it is hyper empathy really - i have The Kite Runner sat on my book shelf, im desperate to read it but i just daren't.

Oh god, saw?? Pyschological thriller it said on the telly guide - i didnt realise - WTF???? once i started i needed to KNOW what happened but i ended up in tears and couldn't do it - i had to get DD1 (19!) to tell me that it all worked out OK! I think she lied .

Its weird though because ive had my two children with a big age gap - 15 years, and i remember being sensitive just after i had DD1, i was only 19 but it wore off, i remember reading pet semetary by stephen king - i had read it before so i knew what to expect - WHY did i read it, i was too scared to turn the page!!

Now i don't get scared i just get upset

I thought it was just me! I used to love horror movies but I can hardly watch them now. My zombie DVDs are all gathering dust, I ought to ebay them really.

I agree though that films are getting more violent. Cheesy zombie B movies are one thing, but the Saw movies and Hostel were really really graphic.

oh and don't even get me started on bloody sad films, don't even go there - luckily DP cant be doing with it, but its like everyting had to be screened. Mind you, even talking about "the incredible journey" and the new version "homeward bound" has me in tears!! ive always been like that. oh and i cried in jaws when i watched it as a youngster because they killed the shark. Would sob whenever pepe le pew came on, i just felt he was sooooo lonely

Yep - im a freak

Zombies don't tend to bother me either. I think it's just the creepy japanese ones (The Ring, The Eye, Dark Water etc.) and the gory torture someone for a while ones (Saw, Hostel etc.) that I just cannot stand.

lucyellen, I was sobbing my heart out at the Muppet's Christmas Carol this Christmas. The bits with Tiny Tim just set me off.

lucyellen - me too! I can't watch realistic violence anymore. (Though a good zombie movie with some ironic distance is still fab!)

I mean, I just stopped watching "Slumdog Millionaire" because it was so traumatic. That never would have got to me before I had kids. Anything that involves children is a bridge too far ...

Same here.

I used to read a lot of trashy crime fiction, with graphic descriptions of violence. Won't touch those books now.

Also, cannot cope with the thought of torture eg in the news.

LEM - Wolf Creek! - Jesus wept, no wonder you were traumatised, I walked round in a daze for ages after that film, so utterly horrifying.

Never, EVER watch Mum and Dad, made the mistake of watching it when DS was only a few weeks old, my god... THE most disturbing film I've ever had the misfortune to see.

I used to feel sorry for Pepe le Pew too! And Roadrunner, well kinda...

I am exactly the same. I just made DH turn off Slumdog Millionaire actually because I can't cope with that scene with the eyes.

I can watch no scary films, no films where children are hurt - it makes me feel ill.

I never really liked them ever, but far worse now. I hate even having it on in the room whilst I am on the llaptop.