Have the Halloween horrors at Bunnings and other retailers gone too far?

The petition’s creator, Tim Doecke, wrote an update stating that he was surprised at “how passionately and vehemently people were defending such a passionate and heated display of blood and gore in public” or calling it “kids need to toughen up a little more.”

Some age-appropriate types of scaring benefit childrenIt acts as a vaccine against real fear. I agree that some scary scenes in children’s movies are good and can help them rehearse their endurance.

But the keywords are “age appropriate” and it should absolutely be the responsibility of parents to decide what is appropriate for their own child. There will be extremely scary corners of the internet that our children will be exposed to as they grow up; for example, the tendency to post scary images on seemingly harmless children’s websites. YouTube clipslet alone turning malls into obligatory haunted houses.

Maybe people forget that children are unique in the way they react to things. While my 8th grade friends were having a great time at horror movie night, I’ve been checking under my bed and closets at night for months and haven’t watched a traditional horror movie since. Department store chains may want to jump on the Halloween bandwagon, but they need to be sensitive to their youngest customers. Otherwise, when tired, exhausted mothers whose children jump into their beds arrive exhausted and full of anger, they will learn what real fear really is.

Cherie Gilmour is a freelance writer.