# Fiction, Trauma, and Children **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [October 5, 2023, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-trauma-and-children/991130 "2023-10-05T03:32:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-trauma-and-children/991130/141 "2023-10-09T02:55:49Z")
Just don’t take the kids to see _[Bambi Meets Godzilla](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R-rbzcEM8A)_. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-trauma-and-children/991130/142 "2023-10-09T21:37:24Z")
Or _[Bambi’s Revenge](https://youtu.be/_FLPc2v3Edc)_. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-trauma-and-children/991130/143 "2023-10-10T15:02:48Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > The things that really mess kids up are never what you would expect, like the flying monkeys in Oz, or some random moment in Labyrinth. When I was a kid, my parents let me watch whatever I wanted, with basically no oversight, Alien, Retirn of the Living Dead, all the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street films. The gorier the better. None of them bothered me. But I had to fast forward past the library ghost in Ghostbusters, every time we rented it. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-trauma-and-children/991130/144 "2023-10-10T15:55:30Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > But I had to fast forward past the library ghost in Ghostbusters, I watched that on an endless loop from a very young age (still think it’s one of the best movies ever) and yes, that librarian scared the Bejeezus out of me. I was also allowed to watch anything, and I don’t think that was a great call. I was a sensitive kid. I am a sensitive adult - still can’t watch anything with torture. My parents also would watch TV with the volume up real loud when I was trying to fall asleep and I could always hear horrible things happening on screen, but since I couldn’t see it, my imagination just filled in the worst possible explanation for those sounds. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-trauma-and-children/991130/145 "2023-10-10T20:47:20Z")
Large Marge scared me as a young adult, and she scares me now. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-trauma-and-children/991130/146 "2023-10-10T20:56:48Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > But I had to fast forward past the library ghost in Ghostbusters, every time we rented it. Nothing in Ghostbusters scared me as a kid, though I have to admit, when I watched it again in the late 90s I was a bit surprised just how scary some parts were. The zombie cab driver? Seems a little intense for a movie they let all us kids watch. You remember a Lily Thomlin movie called _The Incredible Shrinking Woman?_ There’s a scene where she shrinks so small she disappears from sight in front of her family. As she’s doing so, she tells her family goodbye and sings her kids their favorite song, “I Wish I was A Little Bar of Soap.” I had to fight back tears every time I saw that movie when I was 5 or 6. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-trauma-and-children/991130/147 "2023-10-12T00:04:07Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > I was a substitute teacher for a kindergarten class when the whole school was, as a treat, invited to watch a Disney film: _Old Yeller_. All of the teachers were exchanging horrified looks, but nobody said anything to the principal. Turned out she didn’t know anything about the story! Sort of like this? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/osRX86BYsVg/hqdefault.jpg "Friends - Old Yeller") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osRX86BYsVg) ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-trauma-and-children/991130/148 "2023-10-12T22:53:47Z")
From my middle school years (up to age 13), I remember not only _Where the Red Fern Grows_ but also _The Grapes of Wrath_, _Lord of the Flies_, _The Jungle_, etc. All of which involve gruesome deaths. Not to mention deaths and murders in the classics, Heracles killing his own family, Achilles dragging Hector’s corpse around, the dual suicides of teenage lovers Romeo and Juliet, the murder of Dr. Robinson in Tom Sawyer, etc. We also read about euthanasia in _The Giver_, killing for sport in _The Most Dangerous Game_ and _The Hunger Games_, racist murders in _To Kill a Mockingbird_ and _Holes_. > [@Odesio](#): > > So, yes, it’s kind of funny what will and will not scare kids. Heffalumps and Woozels! Oh, and the Terminator. (Robert Patrick, not Arnold Schwarzenegger.) I remember begging my parents to let me sleep in their bed after that movie. But that was plainly not age-appropriate for me. > [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Right before the climax he cried out, in genuine consternation, “Oh, no, they’re all going to die just like the Avengers!” I mean, I’m a grown adult and that one scene in _Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness_ (2022) was… shocking. [The scene where Scarlet Witch murders the Illuminati](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f01kbmgcH_g). I don’t understand why that movie was rated PG-13 instead of R. ~Max P.S. I’ve always disliked dogs, and do not remember crying while reading _Where the Red Fern Grows_. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-trauma-and-children/991130/149 "2023-10-13T04:09:02Z")
I remember being seriously scared by the (allegedly) children’s song “Abiyoyo” about a giant who eats people. (Which in my distant childhood memory was on a folksong album by Burl Ives, rather than the more familiar Pete Seeger version, could I be misremembering?) ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-trauma-and-children/991130/150 "2023-10-13T05:43:27Z")
I also remember a children’s song about Abiyoyo. I couldn’t tell you which version we listened to, it was a CD with bright colors on it. In the 2000s. I was just mentioning it to my brother last weekend. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-trauma-and-children/991130/151 "2023-10-13T05:52:30Z")
My baby sister was scared to death of the Meow Mix ads where the cat sings, “Meow, meow, meow, meow, your cat asks for it by name” Creeped her right out. So there’s no accounting for where your fear lies. (BTW, she has cats now, but I bet I could sing that in her ear and put fear in her heart. Hey, I may send her a message with that on 🎃 Halloween) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-trauma-and-children/991130.md?page=7)