Is it normal for a child to have considerably older friends?

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  • The thing to consider about your 9 year old liking zombie movies and things like that is younger brothers usually have a case of "I wanna be like big brother" syndrome. Especially If there is more than a years gap. What ever big bro thinks is "cool" you can bet little brother will be right there too. It's normal

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    • Yes, I agree with you again. He definitely wants to copy his big brother and his older mates. I think that's where he has even become aware of some of these films and games.

      I do think some of them are too intense and not appropriate for a boy of nine. For example, games like Bioshock and Bioshock II, the Resistance Series, the Silent Hill games, etc. He puts up less of a fuss about being forbidden to play certain games than he does about films and scary books.

      My concern was that he gets extremely scared and sometimes rather upset about the scary stuff. If he was taking it all in stride, that would be one thing. The usual pattern is:

      Son watches a scary film or reads scary stories

      Son talks over the film or story to friends and seems fine

      Nighttime comes

      Son tries to be brave, but overactive imagination switches on

      Son resists bedtime, then wants to stay up reading and doing things to avoid sleeping

      Son either stays up late into the night, or has night terrors, or tries to sleep in his brother's or parents' room, or wanders the house like a phantom and tries to go turn on the telly at 2 AM

      Son is cranky and out of sorts the next day due to lack of sleep

      Son's sleeping pattern is thrown off and he wants to stay up late for subsequent nights, causing rows at bedtime

      Son wants to talk excessively about the parts of the film/story that disturbed him, or alternately, insists that is not what caused the problems at all (this one is especially frustrating)

      A week or so later, son has bounced back and wants to expose himself to inappropriate scary films, books, etc again

      Parents are sleep deprived and annoyed to be engaging in negotiations with nine-year-old

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