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Parenting

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Original poster

Children playing 'Titanic' in the bath. WTF is the correct response?

38 replies

neverbugle · 11/04/2012 19:11

My boys were apparently playing 'Titanic' in the bath this afternoon. DS1 said they had been locked in their room by baddies and were trying to get out.

Anyway, my response was 'oh dear, that sounds horrible' and left them to it, but left me feeling cold.

What a horrible game. Would you intervene? Explain more about who the baddies might have been? or just accept that to them it's exciting rather than tragic?

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overmydeadbody · 12/04/2012 13:01

Agree with matana

Atreegrowsinbrooklyn · 12/04/2012 13:01

Stop worrying so much? Kids play gory and 'bad taste' games all the time. Sometimes it's appropriate to have a discussion, sometimes it's not.

I, for one am sick to the back teeth of the endless Titanic coverage.

festi · 12/04/2012 13:09

my first thought when reading this was jaws also, dd often plays jaws, she has watched the film and she found it pretty tame. I would let her watch titanic too, waybe not the shagging in the car scene. My dd watches outnumbered and loves it, I often cringe and hope she has missed some of the adult things the kids say she often repeats some of the things the little girl says too. If she where to repeat something inaproprite I would have chat with her. I wpould see the game your dcs played as ok as far as im concerned.

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halcyondays · 13/04/2012 14:45

I wouldn't intervene unless they were actually trying to drown each other.

Original poster

neverbugle · 13/04/2012 17:22

ok ok, calm down. I've checked with DH how much of the film DS1 watched and i'm assured it was heavily edited, so no gruesome bits, no suicides and no sex, but yes the titanic does deal with difficult themes but as he wasn't watching alone and he's the sort of kid who will speak up if he doesn't like something or was frightened.
DS2 didn't watch any of it.

I know i shouldn't be surprised that he is re-enacting, but he played in a way that showed he didn't really have an understanding of the tragedy of the situation he was re-enacting.

anyway, i'm sure he's not been traumatised and his behaviour is entirely normal. i didn't intervene, i came onto mumsnet instead!

to be honest, I worry more about what he is exposed to on the news, and we have to edit that alot.

OP posts:

mathanxiety · 13/04/2012 19:28

I would be very averse to letting a young child (7 for instance) watch the news. I also think Titanic was a bit much for him to see even in edited form. If he missed the point of much of it that in itself is an indication that he was in over his head.

QuickLookBusy · 13/04/2012 19:32

Agree with you math.

What is the point of having on a programme that you have to keep switching over? If you have to do that then surely it isn't appropriate and shouldn't be on at all.

matana · 13/04/2012 22:49

Really? So how do you stop a child being exposed to the news? It's all around us. Short of chucking the TV, radio and newspapers in the bin, and preventing them talking to their friends at school, how do you stop a 7 year being exposed to the news?

ChippingInLovesEasterEggs · 13/04/2012 22:56

When the film came out the first time my godson aged about 4 watched it (as soon as it was out on video). Repeatedly. It was his favourite film for years. He wore the first video out and it had to be replaced :) He certainly wasn't traumatised by it. I'm still not actually sure why a 4 yo enjoyed it - but there you go.

Limelight · 13/04/2012 23:12

My DS (4) is also a bit obsessed with Titanic at the moment. He keeps drawing pictures of sinking ships and asking again and again for details about the iceberg.

My DH and I are habitual Radio 4 listeners and he picks up all sorts of things - his number 1 'play' baddie last year was someone called Colonel Baddacki.

I think it's fine to be honest. He asks questions about things, we provide as much info at his level as we can, and then he processes it all through play. With the Titanic thing he was mostly interested in why they didn't see the iceberg in time so I explained and we spent a long time today talking about radar and that sort of thing. I overheard him explaining everything i'd told him (oh good grief ) to DH earlier so I think we're ok!

mathanxiety · 14/04/2012 05:55

To prevent a child watching the news you turn it off. You can look up whatever you want online.

Original poster

neverbugle · 14/04/2012 11:20

Haha, yeah, then a boeing 747 crashes into your town. You can't avoid the news people. (yes i was 11 in lockerbie).

i think the most traumatic thing my children saw was a fight outside morrisons a few months ago. was worse than the titanic movie.

OP posts:

mathanxiety · 14/04/2012 19:44

I suppose there is always that possibility

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