Family Movies that Scare Kids

Common Sense Media‘s Betsy Bozdech has a timely post about classic family movies that some children find upsetting.  Everyone I’ve ever talked to about watching movies as a child had an immediate title when asked what a movie that was too scary for them.  (Mine: Darby O’Gill and the Little People — with a singing Sean Connery!  The banshee coach still scares me.)  It is impossible for even the most attentive parent to predict what any individual child will find upsetting all the time.  The best you can do is help your child develop some techniques for responding to being scared.  Just knowing those options are there will add to the child’s confidence and reduce the intensity and duration of any disturbance.  Some good techniques are to talk about what the child would like to say to the scary character or how the child would like to see the story end instead.