NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9841443/

It is the adults who should be afraid this Halloween. Not of ghouls and goblins, but of psychologically scarring their children.

In a recent study of 6- and 7-year-olds in the Philadelphia area, Penn State psychologist Cindy Dell Clark found that most parents underestimate just how terrifying the holiday can be for young kids.

do you really think that halloween is hazardous to kids? i think if we keep censoring so much from kids they will be missing out on too many important experiences...

I agree. I would much rather have children work out their coping strategies on make-believe emotional trauma before they have to deal with real world emotional trauma. The only way to overcome fear is to be exposed to it and deal with it. Otherwise, it comes much later in life where the stakes are much higher.

Hey, I did Halloween every year till I was 10, and I'm perfectly fine!

*stabs random person*

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9841443/



do you really think that halloween is hazardous to kids? i think if we keep censoring so much from kids they will be missing out on too many important experiences...
I don’t do Halloween, haven’t since I was old enough to make that decision without my parent’s saying otherwise. Still, though, fuck those scared kids. Why does everything always have to be about kids? Kids suck.

Still, though, fuck those scared kids. Why does everything always have to be about kids? Kids suck.

Seconded.

halloween is not tramitizing to kids what the heck.....i mean really... its not

My hallowe'en is surrealist, not scary. Like prancing through the streets, knocking on doors, handing out candy. See?

or giving out golfballs and rocks....
or give the kid change, then put a chocolate dollar in his unicef box.

Why does everything always have to be about kids?

because kids are the future...

Well, I know I've been psychologically scarred by Halloween. I used to get freaked out by haunted house attractions. I think it had some sort of adverse effect on me, and now I don't like to walk around without some sort of weapon. I see people wearing halloween costumes, and I get an urge to either beat them, or run away.

Also, I've got this strange attraction to firearms now...

Maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit. ;)

do you really think that halloween is hazardous to kids?

NO! Halloween is the ultimate of all ultimate holidays.

I've kinda grown out of Halloween. I did go trick-or-treating two years ago at Microsoft (my dad worked there, and most of the offices set out candy). I was the scariest thing imaginable: a lawyer. I put on a suit and tie. I put a sign on a small bag.
Maybe I thought I could never top being a lawyer.

i think if we keep censoring so much from kids they will be missing out on too many important experiences...
I agree.

That being said, I never celebrated a single Halloween, and I'm perfectly healthy.

I've kinda grown out of Halloween.

HEATHEN! Iter Maleficti in Ignem Eternem!

Kids these days should be traumatized more. We should make them suffer a bit, just so they're not all wusses. A little hardship can make you a better person.

The only thing scary here is the number of underemployed psychologists with enough time on their hands to go around doing these bullshit studies.

In any case, this is america, it's a fundamental right to scare the turd out of kids using an obscure british custom. It's in the consitution. And if it isn't, it should be.

Oh please. I don't know anyone who actually grew up scared of Halloween. It's all fun and games. I mean, you're playing dress up, how much more fake can everything seem? By playing dress up and being something or someone they aren't, kids can see that the scaring is not real and it's fun. People are going to get their kids freaked out by everything if they shelter them like that.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9841443/



do you really think that halloween is hazardous to kids? i think if we keep censoring so much from kids they will be missing out on too many important experiences... Kids need a little morbid terror in their lives. I mean, everyone's had something terrifying in their childhood… let's not take that away.

Yes, I am being totally serious.

Yes. I completely found shopping with my mom for a costume traumatizing. Also the walking with a group of friends and friends' moms around the neighborhood getting candy and money.

Terrified me so much, I just carved a jack o lantern for my nieces.

And I then became a Rennie fan so I could wear costumes (excuse me, GARB) all the time.


TERRIBLY TRAUMATIZING.

I believe the greater issue is that it is the only day oif the year whereby kids are encouraged to take candy/lollies from strangers... Weren't we all brought up thinking taht when the 49 year old greasy looking man with a mullet came up to you and offered you a lolly pop you run like hell before he sticks his 'appendage' into your arse...

Things like this annoy me, 'cause it's like they've decided to take all the fun out of being a kid.
I teach at two primary schools - one's in the city and the other's on an outlying island in a fishing village. The city one doesn't have a playground, bar one basketball court (the school has 900 students). The kids spend their break and lunch time sitting in their classrooms. They're not allowed out on the court during break time, because 'they might hurt themselves'.
The village school, with 120 students, is surrounded by trees (no trees at the city school) and has loads of play area - most of which is dirt. There's at least 2 kids a day having iodine swabbed onto knee and elbow grazes. The school's been there over 40 years, and it hasn't lost a kid yet to dirt rash. The kids are alot more outgoing, socialable and friendly too, I might add. Healthier looking as well.
But I'm sure that's just co-incidence, with absolutely no correlation between playing with each other other out-doors and being more sociable.