When Can I Start Showing My Kids Scary Movies?

It’s late September. There is a chill in the air, leaves beginning to fall from trees, and an overwhelming desire on my end to consume scary stuff. My Spooky Season hasn’t gotten started with much of a bang. However, there was a pretty monumental event this past Saturday: my four-year-olds saw the first Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Special.

That wasn’t my kids’ first experience with something “scary.” Last year, we took a family trip to Sleepy Hollow for the Pumpkin Blaze (highly recommend) and stayed in a tiny Holiday Inn afterward. That night, we huddled around my computer and watched The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. I had told them the story of old Ichabod Crane a few weeks prior, and to say they were thrilled by an animated rendition would be an understatement.

Seeing that film was a huge step forward for them, and was something my wife and I had to agree on first. Our kids were only three and a half then, and plenty of people would see that as too young an age to be shown such material, or told such a story before bed, to be frank. But horror movies, stories, and shows have always been a part of my life, and so I admittedly have a skewed view about what is appropriate.

Some of my earliest memories are of seeing horrifying people like Michael Myers, Pennywise the Clown, and Jack Torrance stare at me through the screen. My parents liked watching scary stuff, and they were raising me in a time when things were a bit more lax. I saw what they saw because they wanted to watch TV, and I wouldn’t go to bed, or my older brother was being allowed to stay up, and I would surely throw a fit if not allowed to do the same.

My kids are raised much differently. They are sleep-trained, so when we put them in bed, they pretty much stay there until we get them the next morning (save for the occasional trip to the restroom). We control how much screen time they have, and to that end, we don’t usually just have the TV on because we want to watch it. If we do, it’s something we think will be appropriate for the boys, even if that means watching their father suffer through another season of Texas Rangers baseball (I love them, but hoo boy, this year has been tough).

All of the sleep training and screen control was my wife’s idea, and I’m grateful for both. We were both on the same page for that, and are for most everything. What the kids watch is a different story. In my mind, they’re okay watching the things I watched, albeit without a deluge of Stephen King adaptations. That doesn’t mean I haven’t tried to ladle in some creepy stuff along the way.

That includes several Goosebumps books that were purchased on a family trip to Lancaster, PA, this past Spring. The boys saw them in a thrift store and asked to buy a few. I excitedly agreed, and we’ve read through five already, collecting more along the way. They love them, and I love that they’re okay with reading pictureless books before bed. It’s even improving their grammar (they love saying “dumbfounded” now, and correctly no less).

When I’ve told other parents what they get read before bed, you’d think I was reading them Red Dragon. I get hit with a wave of slightly polite shock. It has caught me off guard! The books are relatively harmless. The most you have to deal with is kids saying things like “stupid” or “dead.” Some parents may not want their kids learning about death as a concept so early, which I understand, but they’ll mostly be focused on how big the family dog will get after it chows on some monster blood.

The reaction felt strange because even my wife was okay with the books. She had a bunch when she was a kid and was happy the boys would at least be read to instead of watching images on a screen. They also handle it well. Yes, they’ll do their impression of a zombie sometimes, but they aren’t running around with butcher knives, talking about slaughtering teenagers.

All of this made watching The Simpsons reenact The Raven that much more exciting. My wife has also insisted they not watch The Simpsons, which was hard for me, someone who has watched it for as long as he has watched TV, but I get it. That particular weekend, she didn’t mind. We’d just gotten back from tee-ball, we were all tired, and I just threw it on. We had fun, and then we moved on with our day.

Now, my wife and I are even talking about what their first proper horror movie will be. We’ve always agreed that The Lost Boys could be seen a little earlier, because I love it and because it isn’t the scariest thing in the world. That said, we both have come around to the idea of them seeing Night of the Living Dead before they hit double digits.

The question now is: When? Obviously, the answer is subjective, but I am intrigued by everyone’s different takes and what they see as too protective or not protective enough. My wife’s reservations about certain things made sense to me, while the pushback against Goosebumps I’ve received did not. That doesn’t mean either is right or wrong. But I am stuck here, wondering.

This also depends on what kind of kid you have. Some are better at handling scares than others. My older brother was better at it than I was, but I turned out okay (debatable, I know). My kids have already been exposed to some things, and we always explain what’s real and what’s not, but will seeing a zombie eating a hand that’s clearly chicken push them over the edge?

Things can also be taken too far! I don’t need my kids watching Chucky clips on YouTube. They don’t need to dress up as Ghostface for Halloween. There will be no judgment toward parents who go that route, but it will not be me. Not even because that’s a restriction my wife has asked for. There will be lines that I draw, all the time, they just may not be similar to those drawn by others.

The material they consume will remain lighter, for now. But, seeing as how they excitedly make me read the names of every movie monster that appears on a shirt clad with them that I wear often, I can only keep them away for so long. I’d also rather they be walked through the experience with me than with a fun uncle or something. So, when can I start showing my kids scary movies?