Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums And what about HP movies or books?

I feel tempted to let DD watch HP1.

She is 4 yr and 10 months old.

DS (age 5.5) has watched and enjoyed four of the Harry Potter movies. DD (age 9) loves the books, reads and re-reads them.

We're pretty big HP fans and we've let DS2 and DS5 watch the first three. There are a few scary parts, but honestly DS5 was much more sensitive to the opening scenes of Cars than anything in the HP movies. We talk through the scary parts when/if necessary. Definitely no to HP4 though as it's far too scary.

At bedtime DS5 and I read HP. We're on book 3 now. So much more is in the book and the movies actually seem pretty tame in comparison. Had to put a stop to DS5 talking in parsletongue to DS2 because he was attempting to be scary. But other than that we haven't had any problems.

JB

(and DW and I have wondered aloud how much we are warping our children... so you're not the only one to ponder this question!)

DH put HP and the Order of the Phoenix on TV the other night. (I think he assumes HP stuff is for kids.) I had only seen the first harry potter and didn't remember it being too scary. But this one was creepy scary! The scary image of voldemort was on the screen before we could change it, and by then, DS4 was into the movie and said he wasn't scared, so we watched it.

To me, this movie (especially the half-faceless bad guy) was more disturbing than anything in the indiana jones movies. Luckly DS4 is not sensitive to such things, but I'll have a little talk with DH about scary movies...

I don't know, I thought Voldemort was creepy too--and the dementors. But my kids don't seem bothered by it. I think DD is ok because she has read the books and already knows what is going to happen. DS is ok because stuff like that doesn't really bother him. He has watched all the Star Wars movies, too. DD didn't want to watch Anakin turn into Darth Vader. She left the room.

I am a big fan of HP and have read the series twice. My dd8 has always been so highly sensitive to scary things that she would not even consider reading the books or watching the movies. A couple of years ago dd walked into the room when DH and I were watching the first movie. The scene in which the students were learning to fly their brooms scared her and she ran out of the room. Imagine what would happen if she saw a scene with Voldemort? My dd5 could probably watch the movie without any issues.

I try to be sensitive to my dd's sensitivities. I had a few images from past movies torture me long after the movies' final frames. I don't want dd to watch anything that will haunt her.

My dd doesn't like watching The Incredibles because the suspense is too much for her.

DS7 used to get upset at Curious George--or any character--who broke the rules. He would get so agitated to see the character being "bad" (his words, *never* mine!) that he would cry and cover his head, ultimately having to leave the room.

You can see why I worried so much when he started getting in trouble in school! This was NOT a kid who was okay with people breaking the rules, least of all himself!

LOL! So funny!

Don't you remember all those bad sit-coms from the 70's like eight is enough and three's company.

I used to get seriously stressed watching them because the characters actions were so illogical!

My parent's shouldn't have let me watch that stuff!

Scarred for life!

My general rule for my DS8 is that he has to read to book before he can see the movie. That keeps him from getting too scared since he can process the information easier when it is from a book than in a movie. (I think he can choose somewhat how much he visualizes.) It also has the added bonus of slowing him down a bit, since he reads through things so quickly. My DH and I *love* HP, but we chose to make DS wait until he was 8 until he could explore the world of Hogwarts. There are some concepts of dating and kissing, as well as a lead character being murdered in HP4, that we didn't really want to get into at an earlier age. So on his 8th birthday, he was allowed to start reading HP1, 2, and 3. It only took him 2 and a half weeks to burn through all three books, but then we had to put our foot down and keep HP4 firmly on the shelf. To say that the HP books are magical is a major understatement!! (grin). He still, nearly a month later, walks around saying magical spells.

As a comparison, my son was much more freaked out by seeing the movie WALL-E this weekend. He goes to bed at night obsessing about the state of the Earth and what we are doing to it. Our dinnertime conversations are now exclusively driven by his need to understand global warming and how it is affecting our planet. And we thought we were seeing a G-rated movie about robots falling in love.