Our oldest son is about 2 1/2 years old. He has seen Milo and Otis* (see the end of the article for my disclaimer) and loves it and requests it on occasion. He knows it pretty well. There is a scene in it where Milo the cat has a conversation with an owl. The owl is not threatening to the cat, but it is at night and the owl is a real owl with buggy eyes and a hooked beak. The owl is backlit. Basically, it presents what might be considered a kind of scary image for a kid.
Our son does not show any fear of the owl when the movie is on. But when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he seems wary of having owls in the house or in his room. This is the first time he has shown any fear of "the boogeyman".
The problem is that he is too young to really understand what we tell him about the owl. So he scared of it (scared is a strong word...worried might be better), but we can't really comfort him verbally.
I think this kind of thing is supposed to happen later. I know all kids go through this. Has anyone ever had to deal with this kind of issue this early? Any advice?
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Comments: 19
Maybe instead of Milo and Otis you should let him watch Old Yeller.... : )
You don't want your kids to be scaredy cats, do you?
full metal jacket!
but seriously,
when my 13 yr. old was two she also had some bogey man fear from Peter and the Wolf video, (absloutely wonderful, btw). I gradually figured out that the best medicine was Miles Davis and hugs.
Not gonna be much help, sorry. You can either manage your child's fear for him or help him with it, seems to be the two lines of thought in everyone's comments.
Julie, do you think this might have SOMETHING to do with your fear of sharks?
We have over 450 dvds & my kids only watch Disney & family films. Hardly any TV (since we only get like 2 channels in our room haha!) It is nice having that many movies cause then they aren't watching the same movie OVER & OVER & OVER again haha! Good luck in your decision...either way you are the parent & you know your child & what would be best for him ;o)
Til this day he gets up when he has a dream, it drives me nuts because its always a nightmare to him, rather its a true nightmare or just a dream of him playing with his brother it freaks him out when he has a dream and wakes up to it. I still talk to him, take him back to bed, make sure hes alright them go to bed or back to what I was doing before he got up.
If it keeps up I would talk to his doctor about it. I would not go out of my way to take him in for it, just when you take him in for whatever.
and by the way...thanks for the info on M&O - i had no idea that happend... was probably sleeping during the day from my kids having Nightmares at night from watching it too and missed it!