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Original poster

Dr Who - suitable?

59 replies

nannyme · 20/05/2006 19:09

My OH has switched on Dr Who for kids to watch.

We are having a nostalgia afternoon complete with baked bananas on the barbecue, home made ginger beer (not be design, it just happened) so discovery that Dr Who was on seemed fitting.

Anyway, kids (6,4 and 2) are watching and I am having doubts about suitability.

What do you think?

STOP PRESS!!!

Ahaaaa! Felix just said "I think we shouldn't watch this - we'll have nightmares"

OP posts:
SoupDragon · 20/05/2006 20:31

Every child is different.

Freckle · 20/05/2006 21:18

I remember hiding behind cushions and sofas watching Dr. Who as a child. I don't think it did me any harm Wink. My 3 (aged 12, 10 and almost 8) love it and insist on watching it every week. Well, they'd insist if I wasn't ensuring it was on anyway.

All children are different and have different fright threshholds. It's up to parents to be aware of them.

Turquoise · 20/05/2006 21:24

I agree with Freckle - it's different for each individual child. My ds has always loved Dr Who, yet had night terrors over a disembodied eye that was brought on by an item on "Art Attack" (don't know if it's still on - but very inocuous non scary arts and crafts kid programme!)

juuule · 20/05/2006 22:03

my 11yo,9yo,8yo,6yo and 2yo have just watched it. Watched it other weeks with no problems aswell. Having said that the 2yo was dancing around the front room so don't know how much she watched:)
The Madame Pompadour worried me but didn't seem to bother them. They seem to enjoy the thrill of the scarey bits and tell each other "it's not real, you know". The older 4 are tucked up in bed now after going to bed and reading the Rainbow Fairy books.

edam · 20/05/2006 22:47

So am I the only adult who is going to admit to being scared, then? Blush

Childhood conditioning too strong, am still terrified of cybermen. Make Daleks look cuddly. Spent tonight's episode jumping out of my skin and clutching dh's hand! (It's the fact that they always walk past rows of cybermen suits and you just know one of them is going to come 'alive'...).

Don't let ds (nearly 3) watch any episodes until we've previewed them, which means he hasn't actually seen any this series.

TambaTheDragonSlayer · 20/05/2006 22:49

The one where the teachers turn into nasty bird things gave me nightmares Blush

(am a big wuss when it comes to things with beaks and claws though )

Original poster
nannyme · 20/05/2006 22:50

I'm still scared of daleks Blush

OP posts:
edam · 20/05/2006 22:52

Thank the Lord it's not just me!

PandaG · 20/05/2006 23:00

We have deliberately chosen to tape Dr Who, and watch it later, as we are both fans Blush! DS (6) is quite a sensitive soul and would not enjoy it yet. We hope that he (and DD when old enough) will enjoy it , as will be fun to watch together. If DS was not so sensitive about scary things we would probably have let him watch some of the episodes, but as it is the old versiopn of Charlie and the Chocolate factory gave him nightmares, so Dr Who will be for the future. One of my 4 yr old mindees loves it though!

edam · 20/05/2006 23:04

I think my cyberman fear was exacerbated by taking my littlest sister to the Museum of the Moving Image years ago. They happened to have a Dr Who exhibition, with all the costumes and stuff. Walked past all the monsters, had a go on the Dalek you could sit in, all quite interesting. Until the cyberman lit up and started to move. B*stards! I have never, ever, been so scared in my life.

Original poster
nannyme · 20/05/2006 23:07

edam I am having a secret chuckle!
Bless you (in a non religious way!)

OP posts:
morocco · 20/05/2006 23:14

ds1 aged 3 watched it and this one was scary for him (sat on my lap) but he seemed ok with it. he knows it's not real and laughs at us if we pretend to be scared
on the other hand, we found him watching a programme about Pol Pot last week (random pressing of buttons got him onto the history channel) and when we turned it over he said 'don't worry mummy it's not real'
that made me feel sad for him and what he has to learn about what goes on for real

Kathlean · 20/05/2006 23:26

lol edam we went to a Dr Who exhibition (many many years ago) A dalek suddenly started moving and saying all smokers would be exterminated, never seen my mum put a fag out so fast (-:

Cappucino · 20/05/2006 23:33

dd loves this and she's 5

bear in mind that a year ago she was terrified by the Fimbles

they grow up so quick (awww)

MamaMaiasaura · 20/05/2006 23:39

this weeks was about the least scarey out of the recent ones. ds 6 loves dr who, when it is scarey he grabs me arms tighter around him but still wants to watch. Not one nightmare since the dr restarted with the last season/

I remember being scared but loving it too iykwim.

Franny - big mistake generally or for nannyme?

MamaMaiasaura · 20/05/2006 23:47

if it was that bad why is it on at 6.30 to 7.00 start on primetiem night?

Also i refute the impression i am given that we are in someway irresponsible to let our children watch it, no more so than power rangers or the like.

I also think a couple of well selected programmes are much better than just having the box on all day as babysitter/background noise. Ds doesnt watch tv everyday and when he does it is not for extended periods.

He is doing well at school and is a book fan, he is social and happy so i do not believe him waytch dr who once a week (which he looks forward to immensely) is doing him any harm. If I believed that he was genuinely upset by it I would stop it, simple.

:)

serenity · 21/05/2006 00:26

DS2 (almost 6) spends all weeks counting down to the next episodee and will watch over and over again if he thought he could get away with it.
DS1 (8) gets a bit nervous about it, but knows he doesn't have to watch it. Tends to do something else at the same time. They've never had nightmares over anything they've seen on TV, they realise that people wear makeup to look scary. They had a big discussion about the Finnish Eurovision entry this evening before concluding they weren't real monsters, just people in costumes Grin

Different children/different reactions. My DCs grew up watching the 6pm showings of Buffy. I wouldn't expect them to have the same reactions as a child who never watches TV or only watches traditional kids TV.

Clary · 21/05/2006 00:30

Ooh now then I wondered about this.
We made daleks at a Dr Who day at a museum a few weeks ago and luckily Dr Who (which they were then totally into) was on that evening and has been compulsory viewing since.
Children are 3, 4, 6.
But I have been a bit concerned about some of the language ("what the hell are we going to do" - wdn't really want the kids saying that) and more to the point it's sometimes a bit frightening. Eg the werewolf one the other week.
OTOH it does feature that eye-candy for mummies, David Tennant (pace Expat who hates him), so I'm sticking with it (just kidding, that's not the reason!).
None of the language has appeared yet anyway (in the kids' mouths I mean) so maybe it's all a bit fast for them to catch. And the goodies do win. I mean, is it any worse than Star Wars? And as Awen says, it's on at 6.30, isn't it?
In fact agree with Awen's whole post. My children ask about it all week, esp DS2 (3), and "not watching Dr Who" is the standard threat now for too many sad faces. We don't watch lots of TV but this is something we have got into and watch together too. We chat about it a bit if anyone seems worried but I honestly think they take it as a bit of fun. I was a bit scared by the werewolf one but we have had no nightmares yet.

handlemecarefully · 21/05/2006 00:36

My nearly 4 year old and 2 year old have watched it - no nightmares of adverse consequences here.

handlemecarefully · 21/05/2006 00:37

lol I've now read some of the thread and I could totally predict the reaction of some of the posters

handlemecarefully · 21/05/2006 01:07

Maybe I should post in the gifted and talented section - my kids are so gifted they can distinguish fantasy from reality and at such a tender age [swelling with pride emoticon]

serenity · 21/05/2006 01:18

I could add DS1 with his extensive, and useful, knowledge on how to successfully dust a vampire?

nikkie · 21/05/2006 18:58

We were watching some of last seasons on dvd and Capt Jack said '.... Hell'
dd1 said'oooh he swore, but we can't tell him off he is saving the earth!'

motherinferior · 21/05/2006 19:04

The Inferiorettes watched one episode and were rivetted, but we've managed to avoid all others. I think a lot of it is just too scary.

Enid · 21/05/2006 19:12

dd1 has watched a couple of eps but we sky plus it and watch it first - the last ones have been deemed too scary by me so I think thast it knocked on the head