Scared Kid Advice

[Jezzup]

I am planning a long weekend trip in October with my niece (19) and nephew (9). My problem is my nephew is convinced the Haunted Mansion or any ride that is indoors is too scary. This started down the NJ shore when he was much younger and went on a ride that was too much for him at that age.

I’m afraid he’ll end up refusing to go on rides just because they’re indoors and my niece and I will end up riding alone while the other stays with my nephew. I don’t want to force him on a ride and don’t want him stressing over it and not enjoying himself.

If you’ve dealt with this I’d like to hear how you handled it. Thanks.

[Figment104]

We haven't experienced this as DS is only 2.5, but you could see if he'll watch ride videos on YouTube for some of the indoor rides so he can see they're not scary. Aside from that I"m not sure what else you could do.

[Ms. Mode]

My DD was afraid of many rides until she was 13years old! It was upsetting for me and her Dad, but we never forced her on a ride. The good thing about WDW is there are so many other things to do. However, I think the YouTube idea is very good. Once he has seen that it's not that scary maybe he will change is mind about riding. Good luck!

[mechanic]

YouTube is great. Start with happy dark rides, like pooh and space ranger spin

[lawgirl]

I agree with the others. I let my son watch the videos on Youtube...Buzz Lightyear and Pirates for example, and he has seen that nothing scary happens. My son has always ridden the rides with us, and never been scared, but I've been on plenty of times where parents drag screaming, terrified kids on, yelling "Don't be such a baby" etc...and its just so upsetting for the poor kids, and for those watching. It's awful!

I hope it works out for you guys. I was scared of ToT until I was about 25! It's tough to be scared. Hopefully it's just a phase they will outgrow soon. Does he have a favorite character, like Buzz or Peter Pan?

[lawgirl]

Just had another thought. Could you do some kind of reward system. Maybe get the map out, and make a list together of rides he might want to try, and also make a list of rides that are definitely out, like Space Mountain. Could you come up with some kind of chart or something so he can mark off if he rides something...a bravery reward? It seems like with my kids, the better I explain what we are doing, where we are going, etc. the better they handle it.

[disneylovinmom]

My daughter was the same way. I looked up on the internet about all the "behind the scenes" stuff and showed her how they made it and how it worked. She was fine with it after that.

[Aurora]

I agree with the YouTube suggestion. Most of the time the fear is of the unknown, so if they can see what's going to happen beforehand, it helps a lot.

After that, if he still seems nervous, do the indoor rides that are brightly lit first, like It's A Small World, or rides that are more interactive, like Toy Story Mania.

He still might be afraid of rides like Haunted Mansion and Pirates, so you might have to pick and choose. My biggest suggestion would be not to push him on to these types of "adventure" rides too early, or he might refuse to go on anything.

[wellsm]

The youtube method worked great for our then-5-year-old. She got to see the rides before hand so she was not scared at all once she got there. She thought Haunted Mansion was fun!

We knew that TOT would be too much for her, so she took the chicken exit with my wife.

One other tip I had read - it helped to explain to her that this was Mickey's park, and he would never put anything there that would make her scared. Everything there was for her to have fun!


I like the idea of some sort of scavenger hunt/check off system. That way there is a goal/reward for riding.

[minnie04]

Youtube!!! For sure try that. My DS10 has been watching all the rides on there since he was little. He was never really scared, but it always helped him prepare for what was coming. We are still in the "I'm not sure I want to ride that yet" stage for some rides, but he is going at his own pace and that's cool with me. I’m still at that stage as well, so no big deal if we don’t ride

[RBrooksC]

With me and my children, the rule we have established is if you are tall enough to ride, you need to ride it at least one time.

I explained to him, and now my daughter, that the only way to know how the ride is, is to ride it. What may look scary, could be a lot of fun.

A good example is El Toro in Six Flags Great Adventure. It is one of the tallest and fastest wooden coasters in the world.

My son said he was scared when he looked at it. But we discussed the agreement again and he went on it. On the ascent up the second hill he was screaming "THIS IS AWESOME!!"

The flip side of that is when he was five and we were in WDW, he went on Space Mountain. He was very scared when he got off the ride and asked that we don't ride it again.

He is now eight and he says he wants to try it again.

While nothing was ever forced, I made it a point to make sure they tried the rides so they know if they like it or not.

[DisneyGiant]

I would not take him on Haunted Mansion first - if at all.

But definitely show him the youtube videos. I did that with Everest before I'd go on it myself!

Also - may want to keep him off Dinosaur & Stitch as well.

Some kids mature differently - why scare the kid when he's on vacation?

If he has legitimate anxiety - help him get over that - it will help him in real life as he grows older....

[MNNHFLTX]

As others have said, start small and build up. Let him see other kids his age or younger coming off the rides that he's fearful about--that always convinced my son that he could handle a ride (he was a roller-coaster daredevil, but was a bit afraid of "spooky" rides like Haunted Mansion when he was younger).

Definitely don't force or even strongly coerce him into going on something he doesn't want to. Even though this might work for some kids it won't for all and if they have a melt-down on the attraction it would not only make it a bad experience for him but for other riders around him. I will never forget going on Big Thunder years ago with a woman behind us who dragged her daughter on the train, saying "It's fine, you'll have fun." It was heart-breaking to hear the little girl's blood-curdling shrieks and pleading to get off the entire ride. Her poor face at the end of streaked full of tears; she did not have fun.

[Eric87]

On our last trip, my daughter was 3. I have a lot of Disney music, and she had all the attraction songs memorized, she just didn't know what the ride was like. When we went on HM, she seemed a little nervous, but I would just tell her it's the ride from her favorite music. I would start singing Grim Grinning Ghosts, and she would relax and tell me she loves this ride just because she loved the song. Same thing with Splash Mountain. YouTube is great, but I think children make more of a connection to music that they repeatedly listen to, rather than a dark youtube video.

[Jezzup]

Thank you everyone for the feedback. We watched a youtube video this weekend of HM. I wanted to show him more but he was bored with it. Hopefully all goes well in October.

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

We had this issue with DD when she was younger. We found out that she didn't like the "inside" rides since she couldn't watch them and see what was going to happen like she could with "outside" rides.

For us, we did two things:
1. YouTube was great, she could watch the ride and see what was going to happen.
2. I promised her I wouldn't take her on rides that would scare her. I stuck to this, and didn't try and sneak anything in.

Since he is old enough, I would address it before you get there, to avoid the issue in the park. Maybe have a list of rides he's agreed to try (that you know won't be too much) as a starting place?

[thads]

Our middle son had similar issues. One thing we did was make a contract. I know it sounds weird, but it was his idea. It worked wonderfully. In the contract, he promised (himself) that he would go on all the rides except TOT, Rockin' Roller Coaster, Expedition Everest, and Space Mountain. He limited himself to 3-4 rides that he would not go on. Since he had already made up his mind, and we all agreed, it saved him the anxiety of making that decision when we were standing outside of the ride. It worked perfectly. He had no anxiety on Pirates, or Haunted Mansion, where he had been very stressed, nervous and unhappy in the past. Not only did he go on all the rides he agreed to, but he also went on TOT and Expedition Everest, which he had on his list. It went very, very well.

[kohlby]

How about talking to the CM at the start of the ride? I do agree with getting him familiar with the rides ahead of time too. We accidently put our middle child on a ride that splashed more than we expected and she didn't trust us after that. If there was the slightest amount of water, she refused. So, at every single ride for the rest of our trip, I had to ask the CM if there was any chance at all of getting wet on the ride. She trusted the CM more than us and needed to hear from them that she would not get splashed.

Also, I wouldn't start with HM if that's a possible trigger. Let him get bold with the other rides and try that one closer to the end.

[Janmac]

Kids do mature differently. We had a 13 year old in our family that hated what a 9 year old loved.

Rides to avoid - just about anything with a height requirement. Even outdoors. A previous poster had a great list: TOT, Rockin' Roller Coaster, Expedition Everest, and Space Mountain. I would add Stitch's Great Escape, It's Tough to be a Bug and Dinosaur.

The 13 year old agreed to ride one scary ride (her definition) each day. Our reasoning: if she tried it and didn't like it, she didn't have to do it again. She didn't really change her mind about any of the rides til she was out of high school.

We brought a 7 year old to WDW, who had been several times previously, but was now more aware of scary rides. She loved ToT, trying it under don't have to do it again plan, but still refused Haunted Mansion because she'd been scared of it several trips before.

She'd also previously been scared on Pirates, after liking it on an even more previous trip. We only got her on HM or PotC when her grandparents accompanied us on a trip and she was showing them around.

We have also had good luck with telling her that Walt would never do anything to hurt a person but he sure liked to make things seem real enough to trick (persuade) her that it was real. I'd ask was she going to let Walt win?

Start with Fantasyland dark rides if possible. Definitely work up to more scary type rides, like Haunted Mansion or Pirates or Space Mtn. If he liked Big Thunder Mountain, ask him would he like the same sort of ride but in space.

You tube videos have worked for the 7 year old. However I made sure to screen them ahead of time and pick one good one of each ride in question. We also have several Disney planning DVDs.

Btw, we had two newbies in their 50s with us for a couple of days on our last trip who couldn't do thrill rides (back and neck troubles). We changed our usual focus from the e-ticket/thrill stuff to quintessential Walt attractions like Tiki Birds, Pirates, Carousel of Progress and Mickey's Philharmagic (just to mention MK stuff) and they enjoyed their time at WDW immensely.

Good luck and patience!

Jan

[DonaldDuckUSA]

I agree with the poster who said to ease him into it.

On my brothers first trip to disney, the first ride they took him on was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and after that he wouldn't ride anything "indoors." Let me tell you, they spent a lot of time on the WDW Railroad. I don't think mom has been on it since.

Does he have any specific interests, like Peter Pan? You can say "Aw, come on. You gotta see Peter Pan! He's your favorite! I hear Wendy is on the ride too!" Or maybe he loves Little Mermaid. That would be a great first time "indoor" ride. There isint a lot of scary moments, right?

Or maybe you need to start EVEN SLOWER, by checking out attractions indoors. Aren't the princesses indoors? Or maybe Storytime with Belle? You can say "It's not a ride." and then say "See! You had so much fun in there and you didn't know what was inside."

You can also play the "big brave boy" line. ;-)

OR you can sit by an exit, use it as an excuse to eat a mickey mouse ice cream bar and then point out all the kids his age who looked like they had a lot of fun on the ride.