Why Do I Want to Show “Alien” to My Four-Year-Old?
I love horror movies. My wife loves horror movies. Spooky stuff always strengthened our relationship and brought us closer together. It makes sense that we want our daughter to love scary movies too.
I’m not sure that means I should show her Alien while she’s still only four years old, yet there's something in my gut that makes me feel like this is something I just have to do. It's silly.
I’ve resisted the temptation so far, even if part of me feels like she could handle it. She’s always loved monsters. Frankenstein was an early favorite of hers, she watches Nightmare Before Christmas throughout the year, and she was in deep on Jaws earlier this summer.
As I've ramped up the movies we're checking out, we watched Poltergeist last week. She ran out during the climatic haunting. We assured her that it was OK to stop the movie, but she returned a few minutes later telling us "I'm a brave kid.”
Maybe that's why I want to show her Alien. I want to make sure my daughter isn’t a scaredy cat. Horror is a genre where female heroes are prevalent, and I think it’s positive she sees herself in these survivors and fighters. I want her to think Ripley rules and xenomorphs drool.
Of course there are gentler horror movies with heroes for her to admire. If I'm honest with myself, I have to admit I just like bragging about having a daughter who loves monster movies. Horror also brought some of my happiest childhood memories with my own dad, so we don't need to do a deep psychological analysis to figure out that connection. I like Alien and I want her to like watching Alien with me.
How I feel and how she reacts about the movies and games I share with her are something I'm going to explore and revisit a lot in this blog. My guiding principles with screen time are always to follow what she seems interested in, not force her to stay seated when I put something on, and pay attention to how she plays and behaves afterwards.
So far, no nightmares and she keeps asking to watch "the movie where the girl gets sucked into the TV" over and over again. I'll take that as a sign she's having fun, but I'll make sure we watch Alien during the daytime with all the lights on just in case.