We are taking our 8 year old cousin to Disneyland this weekend but there is a major problem. She has never been to Disneyland before but when we go to other theme parks she gets freaked out by the characters. She will hide behind us and hold on to us. I don't think that the princess will freak her out but maybe Mickey will. I hope that since they are Disney ones it will be ok. Anyone else have or had the same issue? Thanks.

My ds6 is kind of scared of the characters. He doesn't want to interact with them AT ALL, but he will enjoy looking at them from a distance.

With the extreme popularity of character autographs/pictures, you mostly have to wait in line to interact with them. So if she's scared, just don't take her close to them. There may be *some* occasions where characters are walking from one location to another and they may approach a child, but you could easily steer her away from the character's sight line.

I guess I'm not seeing the majorness of the problem? If she's afraid of characters then the solution should be simple enough: Don't take her to see the characters. If the rest of the group wants to visit a character, can someone stand back with her? If she wants to stand behind an adult then I'd let her.

But there are PLENTY of things to do at Disneyland that do not involve getting up close and personal with characters, so this might be an issue to deal with but not so much a major problem.

Adrienne

I guess I'm not seeing the majorness of the problem? If she's afraid of characters then the solution should be simple enough: Don't take her to see the characters. If the rest of the group wants to visit a character, can someone stand back with her? If she wants to stand behind an adult then I'd let her.

But there are PLENTY of things to do at Disneyland that do not involve getting up close and personal with characters, so this might be an issue to deal with but not so much a major problem.

Adrienne


You're right, it's not that big of an issue now that I think about it. Thanks everyone

You're right, it's not that big of an issue now that I think about it. Thanks everyone

You'll still be able to have lots of fun. :)

Adrienne

I can see how it's a big deal. There are random characters at the entrance at opening, on Main Street, here and there.

Goofy looms pretty tall. I can see how a kid would be freaked out by that.
I guess you'd just cross the street if you saw him.

Since I don't have kids, I can't give you a parent's perspective, just that of a "babysitter" who has taken lots of kids to Disneyland.

Some kids love "head" characters, some only like "face" characters, some hate them all, some will run screaming from Mickey but will rush to hug Winnie the Pooh. Every kid is different, and they may respond in different ways on different days on in different situations.

All you can do is follow your child's lead. I've seen too many people shove their kid towards a character so they can get that "all important" picture. I don't get it - how adorable will that be, 10 years down the road, to have a photo of your screaming child trying to escape from Goofy????

On one visit, we had a child in a stroller when we encountered Flik over at DCA. We asked the child, "do you want to get a little closer?" He nodded yes, so we went a little closer. We repeated this process until we were as close to the character as the child was comfortable with, and he said he didn't want to get any closer. Flik was very good about the whole thing, and waved to the child from the distance we set.

The characters are usually pretty good about "reading" children, and if they have time, will spend a little extra effort to "coax" a nervous child. I've seen Pluto get down on his hands and knees to play with a child, and we've seen Tigger flat on his belly to get "eye level" with a little toddler.

Treat character encounters the same way you would any personal interaction between your child and a stranger - don't force the issue, and let things happen naturally. With some exceptions, you don't normally run the risk of running INTO a character without a little advance warning, so don't expect to be dodging characters all day. But remember that your reaction will also provide clues to your child - if you don't make a big fuss over a character that might be walking towards you, your child may feel less threatened.

AVP

My 4 year old is terrified of the characters and my 3 year old absolutely loves them, well except for the blue butt baboon and some of the villians. We know where the characters are going to be, so we keep the 4 year old away from them but take the three year old to see them.

From PLENTY of personal experience, sometimes you can tell if the child is scared of a character versus curious or nervous... it's a very fine line. Sometimes, however, you can warm up children to the characters if you have the time to do it. Personally, I'll ask them "Did you want to wave from all the way back here?" If they do, then you can add another step such as "Did you want to blow them a kiss?" etc (I usually go by waving, blowing a kiss, maybe a high five or petting their paw, and sometime if you're lucky, you'll actually get a hug or two out of the process).

This does take some time though, so if you do want to try it, try when there aren't too many other people around, or in a more controlled environment (such as with Mickey Mouse in his house). But as stated before, when the child says No, please listen to them. They know where their limit is, and there's always next time.

Don't let her lay eyes on Jafar! :(

We are taking our 8 year old cousin to Disneyland this weekend but there is a major problem. She has never been to Disneyland before but when we go to other theme parks she gets freaked out by the characters. She will hide behind us and hold on to us. I don't think that the princess will freak her out but maybe Mickey will. I hope that since they are Disney ones it will be ok. Anyone else have or had the same issue? Thanks.


I have seen a lot of children that were terrified of characters. The best thing to do is not to force her to go if she doesn't want to. Explain to her that they are very nice and they wont hurt her. Really talk up going to see the characters. Phyc her up. Let her choose which characters she wants to go see and if she freaks out right before... once again don't force. If the party really wants a picture let her come up on her own terms. Sometimes the character can coax the child into coming up to them. Have the character get down on the ground as far as they can (they know to do this for children who are afraid)... it makes them look less intimidating. For a picture, the character can remain on the ground and you or someone else in the party, preferably the tallest memeber, can hold her so that she is now above the character. Also keep her to the outside. This gets her as far away as possible from the character but still close enough to get a picture. I hope this helps and I hope she has a truly magical experiance. :)

Here's a related but reversed problem: my 2 & 1/2 year old Gran'Daughter Loves all characters but doesn't want to wait in line for them and won't let them go once she's latched onto them, does anyone have a good method to help a toddler understand waiting and letting others have a turn?

Here's a related but reversed problem: my 2 & 1/2 year old Gran'Daughter Loves all characters but doesn't want to wait in line for them and won't let them go once she's latched onto them, does anyone have a good method to help a toddler understand waiting and letting others have a turn?

If you figure that one out will you write a parenting book? :D

All you can do is give plenty of advance notice what is expected, maybe even have a practice run at home with someone pretending to be a character and practice saying goodbye.

HTH

I made a scrapbook/autograph books for both of my girls when we went to DL 2 years ago. They were 2 and 5years then and the 2 year old did not want anything to do with the characters. So my 5 year olds book (a 5 x 7 album that all the characters signed on different pages and then we added pictures) has her with every character on each page, and my 2 year olds book is just a picture of the character posing by itself- it still turned out cute and I was able to sneak a few pictures of her without the characters! They love to look at these books, and when we go in a few months they will be 4 and 7 so hopefully looking at all these pictures will make her more at ease this time!!!!:)

I found what worked for my VERY shy little 4 year old was a parent going up with her. Don't necessarily let them go alone. Sometimes I just picked her up and carried her to the character and then I stood between her and the character. Eventually, with some of the characters, she would go on her own.

But the big thing, as mentioned in another post above, is to make sure you can tell the difference between being SCARED and being Nervous. Most of the time my daughter was just shy. For those that she was scared of, we just waved and moved on.

Sometimes there were characters that Mom and Dad wanted pictures of and she didn't, but when we went up to the characters for the picture she would sometimes come along.

One thing we did was on our very first day in DLR we went and ate at Goofy's Kitchen so she could get used to the characters. The characters there were great at trying to break the ice but not overdo it too much if the child wasn't willing.

Now if anyone knows the solution on how to make a shy child smile in a picture with a character - then you could make millions. But sometimes those pics of her being all nervous but you can tell she is loving it - are just priceless...

I suspect my 2year-old will be apprehensive to the costumed characters - but maybe if we make a point of "Meeting Mickey" very early on. With the Face characters, may not need as much coaching.

I'm very much looking forward to playing this by "Ears".:p

All you can do is follow your child's lead. I've seen too many people shove their kid towards a character so they can get that "all important" picture. I don't get it - how adorable will that be, 10 years down the road, to have a photo of your screaming child trying to escape from Goofy????

Rereading this thread, the wisdom of what AVP says really jumped out at me.

I keep referring back to this post. My almost two year old is really leary and aware of anyone, not just scary characters. I was quite apprehensive about taking her to DL this month. We recently went to Chuck E. Cheese's and she wasn't about to approach that scary mouse! He did a great job at coaxing, waving from a distance, dancing, etc. After warming up to that a little, she watched as her big sister hugged and high fived Chuck E. After seeing her sister with him, she figured, "hey,this guy must not be too bad if big sissy likes him!" She finally (with me carrying her) kissed him on the nose!

Sorry to go a bit off topic there, but I just wanted to suggest doing that at DL too. If you have older siblings, have them approach the character first and interact. Kids follow other kid's leads. "You jump in and I will jump in after you!" Above all else, leave the character on a positive note, whether your child 'met' him or not. If the child justs wants to wave, wave and leave it at that. Next time, they may want to do more!

For my son we did a character breakfast first and the Chip was a great chip who spent time with my son on his level and spent time coloring with him. Also, we have had LOTS of characters get down on the floor to the kids level to reduce their size. I have priceless pictures of Tigger and Pooh wrestling with my son on the floor. They even told their handler to go away because they were having soo much fun.

Now my daughter - first 3 trips, she was soo small that she did not care. However this past August - she had just turned 2 - I had to give each character a hug before she would go up to them.