Haunted Houses for kids?
 

I was just wondering what all of you thought was a good age to take a child to their first Haunted House?

My oldest is in second grade, and in the past we always went to the "friendly hours" at the local Children's Museum haunted house. But this year he wants to go to the scary hours.

How old were you went you went to your first scary haunted house? I can't seem to remember back that far into my own childhood...

I think it depends on the house.

I used to go through neighborhood ones when I was little. You know, the kind that had peeled grapes for eyeballs, gooey red stuff for blood, cobwebby things hanging down, and the dad dressed up as Dracula. That was okay, definitely fun, scary to my little brain, but appropriate.

But, a few years ago, I took my youngest and some of his friends to a haunted house (for profit kind) and it scared the cr@p out of me! The whole group of teenagers ran out of there like scalded cats! It was actually pretty funny ;)

Agreed, and on the kid. Some kids are ready for really scary earlier than other kids.

This one is at the Indianapolis Children's Museum- so it's not one of those for-profit ones. I can't imagine they would make it THAT scary, but I am still thinking on making him go to the friendly hours (lights are on and no one jumps out at you, but people are still dressed as mummys, ghosts, and such). Maybe next year...

I do agree that some of the for-profit ones are scary even for adults(although I do love them!). My all time favorite was in the basement of the old Evansville- Vanderburgh County Courthouse. good times

From my experience with my nieces and nephews (10 in total), I would say that the minimum age for the scarier stuff is maybe 9 at the ABSOLUTE YOUNGEST.

My niece is 12 - she wants to go on the scary train, but she is drawing the line at going to the local "House of Horrors".

Ditto...and really just see how well they do. The moment they start freaking out just go.

It might not be a bad idea for the parent to go through the haunted house/ride first, if possible, to get a sense of what happens (and when). There used to be a haunted house in my area that was fairly scary for smaller children - the problem was that it was difficult to leave the "haunted" area if your child was freaking out. That probably goes the same for a haunted hay ride, where it's tough to get off the hay ride halfway through.

Yikes....in my experience, most haunted houses have "chicken exits" at fairly regular intervals. This is especially important if it's an enclosed, walk-through haunted house - they double as the emergency exits.

In response to ForeverRoses, I can remember going to the scary haunted houses as young as 4 years old and my sister was 7. I went with my parents and it was not my choice (they couldn't just leave me outside alone). I was terrified.

Later, around 10 years old, I was an actor in one co-sponsored by our local theatre group and the community college. There were a lot of dark sections, loud bangs, bloody things and mayhem. I wouldn't walk through - still too scary and I was IN it.

Then, I was hired by the San Diego Civic Light Opera to be in their professional haunted house - my first ever paid acting job. For some reason, this second one was less scary - probably because it was more "theatrical" and less blood and guts. So, perhaps the suggestion to have someone preview it first before letting the little one go through is a good idea.

.....Kelly :)

That's the way it was in most of the haunted houses I visited. I was a big fan of horror movies growing up, so I used to go quite a bit with friends. There was that one location though without the "chicken exits." We dealt with screaming kids for about 15 minutes.

My haunted house (kinda) story with my kids is, when they were young, we went to San Antonio where they have one of those Ripley Believe It or Not places. At the hotel, they had brochures and my kids begged us to take them. We warned them that it was going to be scary, but my oldest ASSURED us that since he was so mature, he could handle it. He did say he worried that his younger brother might be scared, but HE was a big boy now.

Well, we went and video taped the experience.. Of course, my oldest was terrified!! His younger brother was like - whatever. We couldn't get out of the place, so I kept pointing out the stuff and saying, "look how fake it is" to no avail, my oldest was howling! His brother was laughing.

Well, to this day, the younger one likes to pull out that video tape to show big brother what a chicken he was (and now, it's actually pretty hilarious - but WASN"T at the time!!). Of course, we have the pre-visit boasting on tape as well, which makes it all the sweeter.

If CPS got ahold of that tape though, they might have taken our kids away! But, I promise, we tried really hard to get out, we just couldn't find the chicken door!!.... (evil of Ripleys)