Monsters and TV

[Qestia]

Do kids without TV believe in monsters?

DH lets DS watch pretty much anything he wants (we have Netflix streaming so there are no commercials anyway, but yes, this is a point of contention between us) this has included a lot of Scooby Do lately. Anyway nothing seems to scare DS, but he is always telling me offhand "there's a kind of monster that does this or is made out of that or lives here etc. etc." I do tell him "there are no monsters, just some bad people" but am not very confident in his ability to assess what's real and what isn't. Is this a problem? Do kids raised without TV also come up with these things?

[laohaire]

Originally Posted by Qestia

Do kids without TV believe in monsters?

DH lets DS watch pretty much anything he wants (we have Netflix streaming so there are no commercials anyway, but yes, this is a point of contention between us) this has included a lot of Scooby Do lately. Anyway nothing seems to scare DS, but he is always telling me offhand "there's a kind of monster that does this or is made out of that or lives here etc. etc." I do tell him "there are no monsters, just some bad people" but am not very confident in his ability to assess what's real and what isn't. Is this a problem? Do kids raised without TV also come up with these things?

I can't answer your question but I had to post because our kids are so similar. DD is 3 months younger than your DS, and she loves Scooby Doo (she gets the videos at the library). I didn't even watch it as a kid, so I'm not exactly a fan, but DH loved it, so...

Anyway like your DS, DD is not really scared of anything like that and really enjoys the monsters, and she has incorporated it into her play quite a bit. She also wants to be a ghost for Halloween and wants me to make the costume now even though she knows we're a long way away from it.

She doesn't have nightmares (if she does, she doesn't remember them and she doesn't wake up - she cosleeps so we'd know) and doesn't show any fear (for example, she doesn't ask us to check for monsters before bed), she just likes to play monsters and talk about monsters. I am reasonably sure she understands they aren't real (we talk often about how what we see on TV is pretend - we have no programming so it really is all fiction in this house). She certainly never says anything that implies she thinks they are real, she just uses them in her play.

I don't see the allure myself and am not thrilled my 4 year old is a Scooby Doo fan (frankly I'd prefer no TV at all), but I have to admit, I don't see any problems this has caused DD.

[Ornery]

I didn't watch tv at all as a young child and had horrifying reccurring nightmares about monsters so I don't think it is all about tv. I also wasn't exposed to any kind of scary stimulus. It was just all in my brain. Vivid imagination and all that....

[fancyoats]

i think monsters existed loooooooong before tv did.

[NiteNicole]

My husband also let my daughter start watching Scooby because he loved it as a child (I never had the patience for it, I thought it was kind of goofy). SHE LOVES IT. And she's pretty fearless...a lot more than I was at her age and older. She does talk about monsters sometimes and they do find their way into her pretending, but she's not afraid of...well, much of anything. She knows monsters aren't real. I would assume your child does as well, OP, and is pretending.

When I was a kid, my best friend wasn't really allowed to watch tv and she had a very vivid imagination about all the "scary" things that could happen - but she was a bit of a thrill seeker. She used to scare the heck out of me with her stories.