I am in no way commenting on other people's parenting choices in this area; I think it's such a wide-open question.
But, I was a child who didn't react to things right away growing up (for various reasons and even now I am often very slow to show any emotion about some things). My parents interpreted this a lot as me being fine with things that ultimately were really disturbing. A few stand out: the shark scenes in Jaws; A Doctor Who episode with a radioactive hand, the tree episode in Poltergeist, and The Exorcist.
I didn't end up horribly scarred (I think
) but images from all those things really imprinted on my brain and at night I would replay them in a kind of quiet terror. I remember the terror and not being able to get them out of my head. My relationship with my parents was such that I didn't share that, partly because they had a LOT invested in their image of me as "able to deal with everything." And with their image of themselves as very tuned in, which they often were actually not.
I'm not at all suggesting that anyone's kids here are suffering terror in the night oranything, but I guess I did want to mention that I do think that sometimes with visual media in particular, I personally believe that images can basically shoot right past the logical mind and get wedged into emotional memory.
For that reason I'm planning to be pretty cautious with my son while he is in the single-digits of age, especially with movies with realistic and violent images like say, Saving Private Ryan. This is a pretty easy decision 'cause I don't really have the stomach for them any more anyway (I did up until a few years ago.) Past a certain age though, when I would expect my son would be able to process things &/or talk about them, I'd be more wide open.
But, I was a child who didn't react to things right away growing up (for various reasons and even now I am often very slow to show any emotion about some things). My parents interpreted this a lot as me being fine with things that ultimately were really disturbing. A few stand out: the shark scenes in Jaws; A Doctor Who episode with a radioactive hand, the tree episode in Poltergeist, and The Exorcist.
I didn't end up horribly scarred (I think
) but images from all those things really imprinted on my brain and at night I would replay them in a kind of quiet terror. I remember the terror and not being able to get them out of my head. My relationship with my parents was such that I didn't share that, partly because they had a LOT invested in their image of me as "able to deal with everything." And with their image of themselves as very tuned in, which they often were actually not.I'm not at all suggesting that anyone's kids here are suffering terror in the night oranything, but I guess I did want to mention that I do think that sometimes with visual media in particular, I personally believe that images can basically shoot right past the logical mind and get wedged into emotional memory.
For that reason I'm planning to be pretty cautious with my son while he is in the single-digits of age, especially with movies with realistic and violent images like say, Saving Private Ryan. This is a pretty easy decision 'cause I don't really have the stomach for them any more anyway (I did up until a few years ago.) Past a certain age though, when I would expect my son would be able to process things &/or talk about them, I'd be more wide open.
