Kid logic

If there is one dead cert in life it's that there is no logic to kids. When my two are watching TV if anything remotely scary comes on, and when I say scary I'm talking Scooby-doo level of scaryness, they both instantly declare that they don't want to watch it. They are both very sensitive to emotions conveyed through music. They could have no understanding about what's going on but they pick up the emotions and again refuse to watch the TV. It's so frustrating, being scared while watching TV, when you're in a nice loving and safe environment is a great learning experience. You need to feel these emotions, it keeps you well balanced.

Over a year ago I came home from work to find that my husband had introduced the kids to Star Wars. Derren was still only 2 and Anya was 4. Much to my surprise they both loved it and have been confirmed sci-fi fans ever since, go figure!

Now to understand my shock let me take you through the mind of Anya. I bought her all of the Disney princess films. She refused to watch them, she looked at the covers and said they were too scary. To be honest I'm quite glad she's not a disney princess girl, it's saved me a fortune! But to flat out refuse to watch something because it's a wee bit scary drives me nuts.

One weekend I took her to the open day at our local theatre, they had actors performing the history of the theatre. One of the actors was Anya's drama teacher, who was acting like a diva, I had to take Anya out of the room because she was terrified! Derren who was fine then started crying as well, he had seen Anya getting upset and as usual anything Anya does Derren has to copy.

Friday night in our house is movie night, the only rule is it has to be a movie that the kids have never seen before. Surprisigly last night they both quickly agreed on a film, normally a referee needs to be called in to sort them both out but this time they both picked Casper the friendly ghost. Now the clue is in the title of this film but within a couple of minutes of the film starting both kids got up and walked out the room because it was too scary. I managed to persuade them that it would be fine and before long Derren was loving the slapstick humour, but Anya on the other hand never looked very comfortable. She spent most of the film in tears because of how 'scary' it was. She refused to leave the room and continued to watch to the end. Now it makes no sense to me why she found this film so scary. After the film she tells me that it was too scary and she would now like to watch Ghostbusters, what the hell! Work that logic out!

Now too many times I've let my fears get in the way of my life and I'll be damned if the kids will do the same, I'm determind to bring them up as happy, confident individuals with a thirst for the unknown but if I can't get them to watch Casper the friendly ghost without freaking out what chance have I got?

Here they are with their non-scary heroes! How adorable are they? Especially Anya in her homemade costume!

 

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