Comments on: Maurice Sendak is a poopyhead

By: Lori

Lori — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:52:35 +0000

My two cents, but it makes me think about how my friends, as parents, try not to overreact when their kids fall down. If the kid sees the parent not overreacting, the kid doesn’t overreact.

Personally, I couldn’t watch “The X-Files” without every light in the house on, so creepy movies are out for me. But at some point, kids are going to have to be exposed to this type of film. Perhaps Austin’s suggestion that these scenes be jumping off points for discussion with the kids be taken to heart. I also like theblondeghost’s attitude. She knows what her kid can handle, so she monitors appropriately.

Per Sendak’s response? Right on. The man’s 81 years old. He should neither curb nor provide answers for parents.

A word of caution: be aware of what your kids are watching with friends as well. My sister-in-law was horrified to find out her nanny took my three-and-a-half-year-old nephew (along with the nanny’s two older sons) to see “Iron Man”. Now he’s forgone Dora the Explorer for Spider-Man.

By: Allison

Allison — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:58:20 +0000

While I think Sendak’s comments were very blunt and could have been worded better I also see why he might be frustrated with this question.

For me it was pretty clear from the preview that this was not a movie for young children. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to see it because I am pretty sure it will make me bawl like a baby. I thought maybe pre-teen and older would be the target audience.

My son (3) does love the book though and for a book with so few words it had very deep themes. For us this has been a wonderful teaching tool. My son seems to get the idea that he can choose to be a Wild Thing or a Boy but choosing to be a Wild Thing is lonely and means he won’t be able to do all the things little boys do. We have also had some interesting discussions about how we all have Wild Things inside us that we have to control. About when and what makes us turn into wild things, like frustration or anger, and what we can do to tame the wild thing.

By: KGS

KGS — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:14:55 +0000

Sendak’s way of phrasing this response was very poorly chosen, but I can only imagine how frustrated he must be with this type of question by now. Some kids (and my daughter is one of them) are going to be unpleasantly scared by just about ANY movie, and it’s not the responsibility of the people who make the movies to protect those kids– it’s their parents’ job to find out enough about the movie to decide whether it’s appropriate in their situation.

To me, none of Sendak’s books would be great candidates as movies good for very young kids. There are some scary things in pretty much all of them that are a lot easier to handle in a book-reading situation than they would be in movies. Even safe in my lap, my daughter banned “Where the Wild Things Are” from bedtime reading for about 6 months when she was 2.5-3, when I think she was realizing (on some level at least) that the monsters stood for dangerous things in the real world. A year later, she’s fascinated by them and their ambiguous relationship to Max, but definitely couldn’t handle them on film.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:41:34 +0000

Like I said, every kid is different. Every parent is different. As parents, you have every right to say what your child will see and won’t see.

Sendak said it himself, he’s not the person to ask. It’s not his job to tell you to see his movie. It’s up to the parent to decide whether or not your own child can handle it.

By: KB 111

KB 111 — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:18:00 +0000

Film and literature are very different media. BOOKS do (or at least can) whisk us away, and feel very real at times. But FILMS are sometimes too real to simply be discussed afterward, softening the intense feelings that may come up. Add in the intensity of the pumped up volume and enormous screen, and it’s a very intense situation. My eyes watered just watching the theatrical trailer for ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ — and no hormones are to blame; it was extraordinarily moving on its own, but in the theater, with the serious sound system and big screen, it made for a powerful viewing experience.

In reference to his own childhood being spent “very depressed,” there may have consistently been dark topics (outside of ‘bedtime stories’ and the like) surrounding the very close at hand issue of the Holocaust, being the son of Jewish Polish immigrants…

By: theblondeghost

theblondeghost — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:04:32 +0000

My husband has long been exposing our kid to movies I thought were MUCH too scary (like The Mummy, Mummy Returns, Hellboy, Lord of the Ring movies etc.).

Our son is three 1/2 and enjoys playing scared, but if I act scared too, he quickly assures me “It okay. It just a movie Mom.” or “Don’t be scared. It not real.”

I understand the concern of exposing kids to something we think is scary, (and there are some scenes we skip over) but some kids do very well with such exposure. It really depends on your child.

Our son is still quite sensitive when it comes to real world things. If we scold him too harshly, or he hears mom and dad argue about something, he gets scared/upset. Our son is very well behaved, polite, and well adjusted, with a firm grasp of what is/isn’t real. That last part come from watching and talking about “scary” movies.

That said, we won’t be going to the film in the movie theater, because they all turn the sound up WAY TOO LOUD and I don’t think that’s good for his hearing or mine.

By: Austin Goldin

Austin Goldin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 05:20:06 +0000

Nobody is suggesting the movie be mandatory viewing. If my daughter wanted to watch or better yet read something that may have tones that she may not understand, I would not refuse her the opportunity to learn or experience something. I take it as my responsibility to help her make sense of the world as best she can. She is not interested in themes too far beyond her age anyway, it’s just not intriguing to her.

The abrasive comment by the author was directed at parents who would blame him for their children not being able to handle the film. I agree, it’s not an articulate way of handling the media or public but I can’t imagine his artful intent is to scare children. If it were, I do not think his book would have made such a mark.

Besides, there’s nothing to fear but fear itself, right?!?

By: My Boaz's Ruth

My Boaz's Ruth — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:10:12 +0000

They have actually found that talking to your kids about strangers too young conveys an unhealthy sense of fear of others!

Oh and Austin, when talking to my kids about scary subjects I would 1) NOT tell them to “Go to hell” — its the language that is completely unacceptable here. and 2) Tailor it to their level.

There are videos I don’t watch myself because I can’t handle it, why would I force my kid to watch something they can’t handle???

By: Austin Goldin

Austin Goldin — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:08:38 +0000

I have heard when the book came out parents felt that the story was too scary then as well. I think situations like this are perfect to engage in a dialog with your child(ren). Parents should be able to communicate with their kids about things that are scary. Life is scary. One should be able to address the things in life that aren’t shiny, fuzzy, fluffy, and soft, especially the young. They will be less likely to let those moments consume them and succumb to those unpredictable and innumerable forces. You would talk to your kids about drugs right? Crossing the street?

By: Jeanne

Jeanne — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:30:15 +0000

I’ve been trying to come up with a reason why I think these scary movies are important. I don’t believe in “toughening up” kids or forcing them to deal with tough/scary situations, but I do think that kids are often dealing with these situations, often silently because they know that adults shush when they walk into the room.

I thought this was a fairly succinct argument of what I was trying to say “…because one of the reasons we tell and read and watch stories is because they give us a way to understand and conquer our fears.”