Kids TV and movies have come a long way from when I was kid. I remember the days of “School House Rock” and “Fat Albert”. I used to love those shows!
Just recently, we were watching “Arthur” on PBS and the episode had something to do with Lance Armstrong and then the next thing I know they are talking about cancer and I’m like CANCER! So I just shut it off. I wasn’t ready for that with a 4-year-old.
As for movies… Myles has seen a few like “Cars”, “Toy Story” and “Thomas the Train”. Then one day recently I made the MISTAKE of branching out and letting Myles watch the movie “Monsters vs. Aliens”.I thought it couldn’t be that bad and we watched it together. BIG MISTAKE!!! Well, there’s one part in the movie that shows a monster with a green eye and that’s when I realized Myles was getting a little scared and turned it off. We probably watched about 40 minutes. So that night he went to bed and woke up at 2 o’clock in the morning talking about how the “green eye” took him out of his bed. I thought to myself nice going Mom! Now I was up in the middle of the night explaining that the green eye isn’t real and to dream about rainbows, puppies and unicorns.
The next day Myles told me he liked “Monsters vs. Aliens” and wanted to watch it again. I was like what? But you said the “green eye” scared you. Myles told me he wanted to see it again. I wasn’t falling for it and said no way. I’m not going to be up in the middle of the night talking about the “green eye”. I deleted the movie from DVR and he can watch it again when he’s 12. And, believe it or not he still talks about that dog gone “green eye”.
Lessons learned: #1. Little kids are fickle. #2. I won’t let my 4 year old watch a movie he’s not ready for or it will cause me to lose sleep. #3. Stick to what we know best… “Thomas the Train” movies or even better we’ll just read a book!
Mommy Mylestones Weblog 
Feb 27, 2011 @ 15:11:54
When I was little, my parents banned me from watching the Disney Sunday Movie and Little House on the Prairie because there was always some moment in peril that would make me cry my eyes out. I LOVED the shows, but it was just too hard for my mom to see my SOBBING just because Laura Ingall’s dog got bit by a rabid raccoon or some princess lost her prince.
Pretty much everything new has the potential to be scary to a 4 year old. I tried to prep Chris for preschool by reading him “Don’t Go,” a book about this little boy who’s mom drops him at preschool, but she come back at the end and he has a lot of fun and makes new friend while she’s gone. I wasn’t halfway through the book when Chris started panicking asking “where’s his mommy? WHERE’S HIS MOMMY?!?”. He actually took the book out of my hand and started flipping to the back to make sure she came back. That was more traumatic than his actual first day of school. Hard call whether Myles should watch “Monsters vs. Aliens” or not, but if it’s not the “green eye” in his dreams, it’s probably going to be something. Good luck!
Feb 28, 2011 @ 07:21:50
Yeah, when I was hanging out with him, he kept going on and on about the green eye that freaked him out in his dreams. I distracted him with a snack LOL