Do you plan to deal with it by forcing the farm (and anyplace else that has them) to get rid of all the fuzzy chickies and furry bunnies, though? Of course not. You will probably try to help your daughter get over the fear and be able to tolerate (and perhaps even enjoy) the presence of chickies and bunnies.
A couple of those segments of nature footage put to music that they (used to?) have on Sesame St scared the hell out of my sister when we were little. She was generally no more timid than me, but these particular things scared her and not me. One was speeded up footage of a flower opening, and the other, IIRC, was an octupus. Now, bear in mind this was Sesame St. I think kids are going to decide what to be scared of (I was no fan of the vacuum cleaner myself), and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. If Sesame St can scare a kid, then anything can.
The difference is, the farm exists as a place for fuzzy chickies and furry bunnies to live. The ShopKo is just trying to hype the sale of junk food for a holiday that’s still five frickin’ weeks away. They don’t need to have a dancing skeleton at their door to sell stuff, and it’s going to be there for quite a long time which I think is probably the fuel for this mother’s outrage.
My 2 year old would be frightened by the skeleton in question, judging by her reaction to other seemingly inanimate objects which suddenly begin to move and make noise based upon motion detection. She’s young enough that she can be consoled, but she cannot be counseled that the skeleton is just a silly fake thing that can’t hurt her. And if letter-writing mom’s 3 year old is a young 3 or not quite as advanced as some kids, he may not be old enough to understand an explanation of fake != scary, either.
If I went somewhere with my daughter and encountered a dancing skeleton or ho-ho-ho-ing animatronic Santa or some such thing which frightened her, at this point the only reasonable thing to do would be to avoid going anywhere near that place/thing again, which would likely mean altering my routines. If letter-writing mom has come to the same conclusion, and it seems that she has, that means more than a month of having to find a sitter when she needs to go shopping, or going to another store which may be out of the way or somewhere which charges higher prices or doesn’t have the selection of items she wants. I would be fairly honked off under the circumstances, seems that she is. I wouldn’t write letter to the editor about it, but I wouldn’t be happy.
Oh, please. The whole world is supposed to revolve around you and your spoiled daughter?
Hello? Reality calling, we miss you. Please join us.
Tangentially connected to whether or not we’re raising a generation of cowards…
My son got into a fight at school when he was a sophomore. He fought back and won. He got suspended because the official school policy on what people should do when somebody starts a fight with them is (a) run away or (b) stand there and get the crap beaten out of them. Fighting back is not an option.
Something we did not know about the St. Paul public school system before we moved here.
When you described that, I thought, “That sounds familiar…” Then I looked at your location field. Yep, Springfield, IL. I have been in that ShopKo.
The dancing skeleton referred to in the press clip is weird. I can actually see how it would be scary to a toddler/3-4 year old (although my GF, AFAIK, has not brought her four-year old to the ShopKo to test this). I think the word I would use to describe it is “disorienting.” Hell, I was at that Shopko over three weeks ago and I still remember it, so at the very least it’s a memorable decoration.
That’s pretty much standard at most schools, I would think. It has nothing to do with cowardice or sissies, it has to do with the school not wanting to deal with endless, he-started-it, no-he-started-it shenanigans that go on after a fight. Both kids just get a suspension.
I was pretty freakin scared of Santa the first time I ever sat in his lap. (Are you kidding? Four years of childhood in India, fresh in the U.S. and I’d never seen a big white man with a big white fluffy beard like his.) As far as I recall, my parents looked at each other, bemused, then talked me out of my screams.
It helped that the mall wasn’t crowded and Santa was very nice and patient. He gave me my first candycane, as I recall. Soon I was asking for what I wanted, just like the other kids.
It’s all up to the parents to teach kids what to be afraid of and what not.
For example, I’ve known many kids whose parents have talked to them about child abductors, what to do, etc. An acquaintance of mine nearly had her child snatched :eek: and was saved only by the fact that the child, as soon as grabbed, knew to start kicking, screaming, and raising a ruckus. Luckily the guy didn’t have a weapon and some nice people came running over to help.
What the OP fails to point out is that the skeleton said
“My name is Talking Skeleton, and I don’t like you.”
I don’t imagine that this lady’s protest is going to be very effective in terms of achieving her goal. The store’s management isn’t likely to be taking down their cool Halloween decoration right after it got mentioned in the paper, after all.
“I’m so ticked at that store, I’m going to give them some free advertising! That’ll show 'em!”
Amusing ancecdote: in my freshman year of high school (In Williamsburg, VA), I did chose B: stand there and get the crap beaten out of me. I walked away with A) a broken nose, and B) a day’s suspension, same as my assailant got. My junior year, I hit someone upside the head with a T-Square in engineering class, and didn’t even get a reprimand. Conclusion: Make the teachers fear you.
Children take their cues from their parents. My son (he’s one) and I encountered a dancing skeleton this weekend. He was afraid of the thing, but we got closer to it and watched it for a little bit, while my wife was paying for the purchases. I started laughing and calling it silly.
He eventually started to relax some. He didn’t like it (my boy has taste), but he didn’t seem scared either.
It most certainly does have to do with cowardice and sissies. Specifically, it has to do with the cowardly sissies who comprise the school administration not having the brains to investigate the facts of the matter and the spine to hold the guilty accountable.
Where in hompin heck do you get that? Can you read? I said that if we went someplace that had such a device and it scared my daughter, I wouldn’t be able to take her back there. I didn’t say that there shouldn’t be such devices anywhere. I didn’t say that I’d write a letter to the editor demanding that the store remove the device. I didn’t say that I’d even complain to the store. I said that I understood the motivation of the mother mentioned in the OP. I also said that I would not do what she did.
Further, my child is two years old, a baby! She’s not yet verbal. She’s not able to have a conversation with me about why something scared her – and yes, babies get scared of things – and why it’s not worth being scared by it because it’s just a weird, silly thing and not something that can really hurt her. Do you have children? Do you know any two year olds? They get scared by things. Their parents have to act accordingly – and that tends to mean keeping the child away from the scary thing. That’s reality. :rolleyes:
You’re right of course. I get really torqued when people assume their children’s needs supersede my children’s needs, especially when it’s to the degree that they’ll have something removed that my kids might have actually enjoyed. But re-reading your post you obviously aren’t one of those people. My knee-jerk reaction was that you’d actually find and pay for a sitter for a month because a four foot tall dancing skeleton was scaring your child and should therefore be removed. But you didn’t say that, so I apologize.
Two year olds are funny. A dancing skeleton might scare them, but a big loud car speeding down the street doesn’t faze them a bit, and they’d blunder right into it if we didn’t keep a close eye on them. So we spend a lot of time teaching our kids what to be afraid of, and why.
When my kid was a toddler, he was afraid of potatoes. Today, he EATS potatoes!
Maybe he figured he better eat them before they eat him.G
I have a friend who is an Assembly of God pastor, his wife is a bit more fundist than him & she was determined that when they had children, she was going to prevent them from “spirits of fear” (i.e. keep them from anything scary). When their son was two, my friend tells me that the son freaked out at the animated bear at the entrance of a country store & any wind-up animal toys have the same effect. I told him “See, try to protect your kids from scary things & they’ll find normal things to be scared of.”
He kinda agreed. Btw, the kid (who is now seven) is fine now & has a little sister who is braver & tougher than him S
Right, I’d find and pay for a sitter for a month because a four foot tall dancing skeleton was scary to my child and that’s all. So we’ve got each other. Cool.
I guess a better discussion might be the overwhelming glut of Halloween and Christmas stuff as a promotional method in American marketplaces, given the potential for both for fear and offense inherent in both.
And one kid gets taught that it’s better to end up in a hospital, raped or dead than to throw a single punch.
I don’t think so. A student on the schoolyard is expected to tell a teacher or yard monitor rather than hitting back; not do nothing. I can’t imagine a situation where, if you’re in a crowded, public space, and it’s unlikely that your opponent has a weapon, and it’s still more reasonable to start punching back than to walk away.