Dr Who - suitable?

[nannyme]

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"

My nearly six year old is completely addicted. It did cross my mind he might be a bit young but he really really loves it.........oh dear another stick with which to beat. Doesn't seem too disturbed just yet.

My ds watched it when we were staying with friends last weekend (their kids watched it) and had nightmares afterwards. I let him see it against my better judgement I have to say. He's 6 and one of the few amiongst his friends who hasn't een watching it since it started.

Scary is good, although neither DSs think these cybermen episodes are. I think you really have to use your own judgement on things like this. I know what's 'suitable' for my kids, but I'd have no idea what other childrens reactions should be.

I think I've mentioned this before, but my DSs will watch Buffy/Doctor Who etc, but refused to watch Finding Nemo because of the Sharks. It's only because DD loves it, that they've been forced to sit through it and realised it's not that bad after all!

would be, not should be, sorry.

Yes, I know loads of kids my ds's age who won't watch finding nemo because of the angler fish.

My ds will watch something seemingly quite happily and we'll only find out later (usually at about 9.00 at night) that he's been terrified of it. So I am very selective about what I let him see.

The child he watched Dr Who with is also 6 - she watched Lord of the Rings a couple of years ago (with her older sister). Now I was scared of that film.

I have always had a phobia about robots and it wasn't until the BBC did that stuff about the vintage Dr Who and screened some of the early episodes last year that I realised where it had come from. I was 10 when the original cybermen were screened. Yes we know it's men in suits and you can see the zip but it brought it all back.

I tried to watch last week's Dr Who but once the cybermen started moving I could actually feel a panic attack coming on. I legged it out of the room. This week I watched from behind my hand and found I was OK as long as they didn't move.

The scarey thing is to find that a 33-year-long phobia has been caused by something so daft. Does make me worried about the effects of TV in general on today's children because I had absolutely no idea this was at the root of my fear.

OK, I do not believe watching dr is damamging my child. I believe feeding children crap food harms them, letting them stay up all night does, using the tv as a parent instead of interacting does too... could go on.

Serenity - ds only watched one buffy so far - the musical one he love it.

Last night was a movie night and we watched corpse bride - ds loved it.

Is diff for every child and if dr too scary for some tis ok. personally my ds enjoys it and am not going to fret about it cos there are many many worse things..

OK, I do not believe watching dr is damamging my child. I believe feeding children crap food harms them, letting them stay up all night does, using the tv as a parent instead of interacting does too... could go on.

Serenity - ds only watched one buffy so far - the musical one he love it.

Last night was a movie night and we watched corpse bride - ds loved it.

Is diff for every child and if dr too scary for some tis ok. personally my ds enjoys it and am not going to fret about it cos there are many many worse things..

Banned in our house I'm afraid. Ds1 does love it and has seen a few, but each time it has triggered off very frightening nightmares for him, possibly because it's on shortly before bedtime. He's fine with most things slightly hair-raising, eg Harry Potter etc, but Dr Who and recently even Peter Pan (not the cartoon) just before bedtime have set his dreaming imagination off. He's eight. We've said we might tape it and let him watch it earlier in the day and see if that makes a difference, but atm it's under review.
I loved it though, but hid behind the sofa many times watching it. Don't think it's harmful, just not helpful to ds1's sleeping pattern.