I took my four-year-old to a haunted house for the first time this past weekend. She got scared, and I loved every minute of it. I do realize that may sound a bit cruel. What parent would want to scare the kid senseless? Me, of course! But all jokes aside, there is a lesson to be learned in all of this – one you may want to teach your children.
I’ve always been a huge fan of scary movies. Before having kids, my hubby and I would watch movies like Paranormal Activity with the entire house in darkness. That wouldn’t go over too well these days. People screaming for their lives in a horror flick just wouldn’t fly.
I can’t remember the last time we were able to watch film in its entirety. It seems as if there’s always something else that needs to be done, not mention my hubby eyes dimming around 11pm. However, a recent trip to the haunted house took me back to those scary movie moments.
If you’ve ever been to one, then you know how terrifying it can be. There’s usually actors dressed up in spooky costumes, and ready to scare the bejesus out of you. Once we arrived at the gate, we spoke to the person at the entrance about just how scary it would be. After learning that the lights would be kept on during the entire journey through the haunted house, I wondered if it would be worth the trip. “Let’s hold off, and visit the pumpkin patch first,” I suggested.
“But, I really want to go,” she insisted.
“We’ll talk about it later,” I replied.
Paying six bucks a head to walk through a well light haunted house didn’t seem like fun.
We took a couple wagon rides around the pumpkin patch, picked a couple of pumpkins, and went to the bouncy house from the Jungle Jumps.
After all that I figured she would have forgotten all about the haunted house. Boy was I wrong. She begged and pleaded to go there before we left. Sure enough I fulfilled her request. My hubby waited outside with Young O, while Princess and I went inside. From the moment she went through the doors, she clutched my arm.
“It’s ok,” I assured her. “It’s not real.” That did nothing to put her at ease. She continued holding on to me for dear life. I had my camera with me and tried to get a few shots of her. “Stand next to the dead body and smile so I can take a picture,” I said.
“No. no pictures,” she whined.
She wouldn’t go near the fake corpses , but I managed to snap a few candids.
After a few minutes, she wanted to leave.
“Nope. We are going through this entire house,” I ordered. She wept the entire way. “I’m scared,” she moaned.
It turned out to be a much longer journey than I originally thought. The house was a huge maze of twists and turns. There weren’t any zombies jumping out at us, but there might as well be – considering the layout of the house. There was enough webs and scary faces to frightened anyone. The rooms weren’t as bright as the lady at the ticket booth mentioned. The lights were on, but they were very dim. I used a flash to take the photos inside.
Every time we felt like we were nearing the end of our trip, the path would lead us to another semi-lit room. Once we saw daylight, we knew we reached the end and Princess ran like a bat out of hell.
Some may think that I may have scarred my little girl by having her walk through the haunted house. But in some weird way, I wanted to teach her an important lesson. There may be things in life that may scare you, but it’s important to stay the course. Facing your fears will make you stronger.
Would you take your little ones to a haunted house?