Please help- little one saw horror movie?

Question

Well i went out to dinnera couple nights ago and left my oldest (16) to watch her 4 year old sister. They watched When a Stranger Calls.(i'm surprised the older one got through that while babysitting) And of course the nightmares came on after that and when ever someone calls on the phone. So far I have let my lovely older daughter deal with this since she caused it, ( i have been consoling her as well) The problem is that this has not gone away she still wakes screaming up in the night. Its been almost a week w/out very little improvment (she got better about the phone). I'm just worried will this go away on its own or should i get her some professional help, to quicken this.

My daughter is very sensitive we have to very carefuly choose good movies for her to watch, she gets bad dreams about almost all the disney movies ( i think the only one left is cinderella). HELP!

Answer 1

My kids used to get really upset over Disney level drama, so we started talking through the scenes - you know, she's not really that mean in real life...she's a good actress.  I bet they went out to lunch afterward.  Or "Wow!  What a well trained dog to be able to pretend to be hurt.  How do you suppose they trained him to do that?"

It did help (as a previous poster suggested) to see a "behind the scenes" - even something as simple as High School Musical, so see that Sharpay isn't really mean in real life and they all get along.

Remind her too, that the music makes it scarier.  Try a mild thriller with the sound off, and see how it's not nearly as scary.

And you want scary?  I would be pretty scary to the 16 year old !!!!

Answer 2

she will get better. i remember my uncle babysitting and letting us watch Friday the 13th and Halloween, I survived

Answer 3

It may not work at this point, but from the day my daughter started watching TV, i told her that the stuff she saw on there was all fake. It wasn't long before she was noticing that those commercials she saw represented toys that she could get at the store and she started telling me that the stuff isn't fake, but that just opened up the opportunity to tell her that even the commercials are overdone. (example, a Barbie doll on a commercial can stand up on her own, and even move her own arms and legs, but the real ones can't!) By the time my daughter saw her first scary movie (Aliens Vs. Predator, and she was either 5 or 6) she was laughing at how they used the alien goo to make tatoos on their bodies. It is now her favorite movie. She is also sensitive, but our movie problem happens on "real-life" type shows where something happens to the family, like the mom dies or something. She cries for quite a while, and then waits to see how the movie ends (so the one thing I won't let her watch is a movie that doesn't have a happy ending!!!)

But its worth a try to talk about reality and TV-ity.

Answer 4

I really don't mean to sound rude so please do not take it this way. . .  perhaps your daughter is very sensitive because you've raised her to be that way.  By carefully screening the movies that she watches, she's been extremely sheltered and so the horror movie has affected her in a very negative way.  

I myself grew up being babysat by an older cousin who used to close us up in a room to watch horror movies when we were small.  Sounds really horrible right?  Well, not really.  It desensitized me rather quickly and made me realize they're just movies and aren't real.  Now, I'm REALLY not suggesting that you do this to your child but am only suggesting that sheltering your child to an extreme point could be damaging in the long run.

Funny thing was though . . . I thought nothing of Cujo and Nightmare on Elm Street but put me in front of a Disney movie and I was terrified.  I don't know what it is about Disney films but they're scary to a lot of kids.   Go figure.  

I'm sure that with a little more time, your daughter's nightmares will cease to exist or will at least become more sporadic.

Answer 5

I think you need to give it a few weeks, don't talk to her about it, just let her cope with it, she might forget. Then maybe she should have counseling if it doesn't go away.

In future just make sure that she doesn't watch horror movies and if she can't be trusted then don't let her babysit.

Answer 6

You need to reassure her that it was make-believe.  Play a game with her where you pretend to be princesses or something she enjoys.  Then talk with her about how you pretended to be something you weren't.  Then talk about how movies are just people playing roles.  Then reassure her that she is safe in real life.  Show her locks on the doors, locks on the windows.  Teach her to dial 911 if their is an emergency.  This is about fear.  She is small and feels fear from things she can't control.  Give her some element of assurance and control.  If things don't get better in another week or so then you may want to seek therapy for her, but realize that children process things at different rates than adults.  It can take months for the fear to truly lessen.  Now make sure your other daughter realizes the damage she did, and make her accountable.  Reiterate what is expected when she babysits.  

We had a similar problem with our son and daughter.  He told her there were gunmen hiding upstairs, and it took us a week to convince her otherwise.  So I know what your going through.  Good luck with it.

Answer 7

When my daughter was little (she's 11 now) she wasn't scared of much until she went to preschool and learned that her friends were afraid of 'monsters'. I made 'monster spray' - water with bit of aromatherapy - something very relaxing - and sprayed it around her room, under her bed, in the closet - it made all the 'monsters' go away.

As for movie scares - she was a little older - maybe 6 years old, and only caught a clip of the movie - but we had a talk about it being 'acting' and 'pretend' - and I had her 'write' a letter with all of her fears in it and mail it to the character in the movie. The 'actress' promptly wrote her a reply telling her that she was just fine, that it was all pretend, and that the 'killer' and her were actually friends - and he said to say hello! She sent her a picture of the two of them together - that  was just taken that day, in fact!

Fortunately for me, there was a publicity shot on you tube that I printed out of the two main characters, smiling happily for the camera! Also, fortunately for me, she didn't notice that the letter had no stamp or postmark!

Answer 8

This may sound silly- and of course you have to choose how but it really helped my daughter to see how they made the movie. Also see how they made things like robotics or "monsters" -even rides at amusment parks. Once she saw examples of movies being made and such-then I could explain to her its just a pretend movie. That adults like to scare themselves. I don't like those kind and she was real sensitive too. I do like monsters though so I had to watch later at night etc. This should be a real eye opener for your teen too-seeing the results of her actions. Movies today are so real it can be hard to "let them go". My daughter still watches with a hand over her eyes and peeks at scary movies-she's 14 yrs. Good luck. Even watching how a regular movie is made might help-check bonus cds with movies etc.

Answer 9

I don't know if you are a Christian or not, but this is what I told my 4 year old son, and it seemed to work. I said, "When you get scared, or see something scary you say this. Jesus Lives in my heart, and I am NOT afraid of you!" It is so cute, and it works. I love hearing my son, say this, especially because he says it with authority!

Answer 10

i think u should c a psyciatrist

Answer 11

The best I can think of is to let this pass. As she matures and grows the horror of all films I would hope will pass. If you take her to see a professional this could help but this could also become something bigger. If you don't force your daughter to outgrow this you will be taking her to see a phsycologists evertime she sees anything that isnt cinderella. This really couldn't be retroreactive. Sometime sit her down and explain how all of the movies she has seen are fantasy,being 4 try to connect this with starting that you satched these movies also. Another thing you can do is sit with her and watch one of these disney films together and give her emotional support. All children have phases and hopfully she'll grow out of this.

Answer 12

show her a pathetic scary movie that is obvious that it is so fake and apply it to When a stranger calls old time scary ones are good

Answer 13

When I was about 7, my parents made me stand in the corner for an hour and during that whole hour, they had Child's Play playing in the other room. I could see the movie from a reflection off a picture and I was scared for about 3 weeks.... I would not turn off the light, I got rid of ALL of my dolls (and I still don't like dolls, lol). It was horrible!

Like the other posters said, I would talk to the doctor about it... she sounds like she has sensory sensitivity and a very active imagination. I was like this when I was young and they gave me special exercises to do every day - they were simple exercises before I went to bed. I would have to write a story (or probably in her case, you would have to read her a story) that was simple and happy every night before bed. The other thing that would help when I was younger was learning meditation. My grandmother taught me to focus on a bubble that was floating over a golden field and I would spend a lot of mental energy trying to focus on being able to "see" the meditation it helped me sleep a lot better.

My mom and dad took a more realistic approach about it all - also like another answerer said - make sure your daughter knows what to do in an emergency, Make a plan of action for the house as in an emergency, to reassure her if anything was to ever happen, that she would know what to do. Also, focus on the fact that it wasn't real. I think combined between the two you should be able to have her feeling more safe and secure in less than a month.

It is going to take a while though, just be patient.

Answer 14

I agree with the one that said show her the making of the movie. It will show none of it was real.

You could find it on youtube probably...

When a Stranger Calls isn't the worst she could have seen, at least it wasn't Hostel or Saw.

Answer 15

I'm very sorry this happened to your daughter.  We have a sensitive child as well.

Put in a call to your child's doc just for the reassurance.

This will get better over time - but it will take time.  

Kids are very resilient.  Remember that.

Hang in there and be well.

Answer 16

When my son (age 4) watched "Gremlins" with his grandmother the first time- I thought not such a big deal, I saw it when I was younger and it didn't freak me out. Well, watching it again as an adult, I thought What the heck is grandma letting you watch!?! Then the not going into a dark room started with him- I just had to keep reminding him that it was just a movie and that those things were pretend, puppets. It took a while, but eventually he forgot about it. Now if he sees something scary on TV he'll say "That's just a puppet or a guy dressed up for Halloween, right Mom?" Yep- I'd also tell your older daughter that when you go out there are certain movies that she can and cannot watch. Apparently you will need to be very specific so this won't happen again. Good Luck!

Answer 17

If nothing has seemed to help get professional help for her. There might be something else going on in her mind that is keeping her this scared.