Toddler terrified of characters
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Toddler terrified of characters
| Fri, 05-19-2006 - 5:26pm |
Hi all! We are planning our trip to Disneyland June 23-28
| Fri, 05-19-2006 - 5:26pm |
Hi all! We are planning our trip to Disneyland June 23-28
My dd has been scared of them since before she turned 2, which was her first trip. She is now almost 6 and has been 5 years in a row. She is still terrified of the costumed characters, but likes the face characters (like Cinderella, Prince Charming, etc.). What we do is I hold her on my hip, then go to the character to have our picture made; I have her on the outside, so I'm between her and the character. This helps a lot.
If we're at a character meal, we sit her where it's not easily accessible for the characters to get to her. Then we tell them that she's a little afraid, and they just wave or maybe shake her hand, which she is fine with.
This year, she sat on my lap for Donald, Mickey & Pluto, but she absolutely refused to get anywhere near Goofy; I think it's because he's so tall.
Anyway, see if holding him helps; if not, it is definitely not worth it to traumatize the kid!
HTH!
M'Shel
My 2 yo eats it up, absolutely loves the characters, costumed or face. Same as my 7 yo (who flops between believeing and pretending to believe for the babies sake, although she's *pretty sure* the princesses are real)
My 1 yo on the other hand wants nothing at all to do with a costumed character, doesn't really mind the face characters but would prefer to veiw them from a distance. She's the same way with people. It has to be HER idea to come to you and if you come to her w/o her permission or worse sneak up on her.....oi... ear splitting shrieking, runs behind me trying to climb up and screaming at whoever is near her. She flipped out on a guy at the park today who was playing with his 1 yo son and came closer to her than she wanted. Of course he was wearing a hat & sunglasses, neither of which she likes on guys.
So while at WDW, we didn't even put her with any of the characters after we discovered she was not up for the game. I have a picture of all 3 girls with Mickey, and that was the first character, it went 'ok'. Second was Minnie and in the picture Megan is on Kaitlyn's hip leaning away from Minnie trying to get to me. That's it.
Piggy-backing off of Sonya's post...she mentioned the quieter, calmer, well-lit inside meet & greets. I think for a "first-time" meet & greet to see how it would go, you should do a meet & greet in Toontown Fair at Magic Kingdom. You can see characters like Minnie, Chip & Dale, Pluto, Pooh, Tigger (who is quite a bit bouncy and VERY tall), Piglet, Cinderella, Suzy & Perla (mice with Cinderella), and other princesses, as well as Mickey in the Judge's Tent.
Not only is it quieter & calmer, but the main reason for this is they only let a limited amount of people in at a time. You could even stand back for just a little bit (your time is VERY limited) to let him see others interacting with the characters, then go last.
HTH
Alysha