Thread: Parenting and Haunting

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I don't know about the other parents out there but I am having a little trouble with my 4 year old and finding that fine line between my parent side and my haunter side. Recently she has been making comments that I think are awesome, however they are probably a little disturbing to other parents and the general public at large. The other day she was just looking out the window while I was driving her to her dayhome, and she suddenly got very excited and said "Daddy look there is fire coming out of that tower. You could build a tower and light people on fire, that would be scary!". What am I supposed to do with that? I try not to talk about gore effects or anything that would be disturbing to a 4 year old, but she comes out with stuff like that (which by the way was an awesome idea for a few years down the road) so I just don't know what I can do to keep her from my twisted side, or if I even should......... just very confusing . Any thoughts are appreciated as she is my first and my wife and I are going to be trying for another one soon, so I need to deal with this now.

I wouldn't worry TOO much. But obviously, in a case like this, explain to her that fire is NOTHING to play around with and it is most certainly NOT ok to set real people on fire lol. Just teach her right from wrong and make sure she knows the haunting stuff you do is pretend and just for the fun of Halloween

When I was in the second grade, the school contacted my parents- concerned with what they thought was a preoccupation with the morbid. Luckily, my parents ignored them.

I LOOOOVED ghost stories and haunted houses. So naturally, I filled in sentences like, "The flowers are _____" with answers like "dry and dead on top of a grave."

Kids know the difference between good haunting fun and reality. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Psychology gets very confused trying to define you. They will say things (maybe just covering their "bases") that will never happen, never be true.
Small children are very creative attempting to plug in the words with concepts not usually well defined for them yet.
Teaching them about other's feelings and making sure they consider other's as reguards to their words and actions will make for a much better world for all.
Our minds can be a totally harmless playground of "what-If's".
What a parent rewards as far as words, ideas go sends a definate message to the small ones, usually trying to imitate and please us.

Dont over think it. I have 4 year old twin girls. They are still learning. They dont know everything. lol You guide them, you explain things to them. Thats our job as parents.

I agree with many on here. My son is 5, I always try to point out to him that Halloween, props, haunted houses, etc are only make-believe and are for fun. I think we sometimes don't give our children much credit when it comes to drawing lines between things-- they are sometimes a lot smarter that we believe.

I'm not a parent, but don't worry about it. At least she's sharing your interest and is actually sharing things with you.

And honestly, don't even remotely care what anybody else thinks. You're raising your daughter right and to hell with everybody else.

It's none of their business as long as you're not hurting her, which you're clearly not.

I dont need to add anything because everyone pretty much said it all..... KIDS!!!

My school also contacted my parents about my fascination with the macabre when I was about 5-6 years old. Luckily my mother's childhood friend, who became a child psychologist, told her they were full of it. I'm sure they're even more freaked out since she's a girl. I do agree with the comments making sure that she understands what isn't safe, and the difference between real and fake. She's a little young to get that concept but it'll sink in eventually.

My kids (ages 7 and 8 at the time) and I made our first ever prop together, they helped me find the costume, decorate her, and the kids applied all of the fake blood to her lab coat (she was a creepy old lady Doctor). Going through all of the steps to get her ready for Halloween really helped the kids to understand it was fake, it was all pretend. From there they quickly applied this logic to props at Halloween stores, movies and so on. I felt they needed to be exposed to the creepier side of H'ween in a fun and creative way, that let them be in control of the "right" level of scariness they could handle.