Caleb's already 5 and a half but believe it or not, we've never taken him to the cinemas to watch a movie. If you ask me what's the reason? Well, it's coz our son gets very affected by the scenes he watches on TV and it gives him nightmares in the middle of the night. When he was two plus, he watched "Finding Nemo" and "The Polar Express" at Yee Yee's house. And the exciting scenes in both movies gave him nightmares at night. When he was three plus, we made the mistake of allowing him to stay up with us during Chinese New Year's eve to watch "KungFu Hustle". We thought it was a comedy so should be ok. Alas, we didn't get any chance to sleep that night coz he was coming to us every hour to tell us how scared he was and started asking us whether we remembered to lock our main door and gate.
Last year, he watched "Cars" at a friend's house and when the car "Lightning McQueen" got lost in the desert, he told us he didn't want to watch it anymore coz he was scared that Lightning McQueen was lost. We think he has got a high level of empathy for the movie characters and any scene of danger leaves him feeling very disturbed and it would keep him awake at night.
Well, over the weekend, we got 3 free tickets from our dear friends Wendy and Uncle John, to watch Chronicles of Narnia. They had specially gotten one for Caleb as well, thinking that he would enjoy the show. So, with that, we decided to pluck up our courage and bring him along for his first movie experience.
The night before the movie, he kept telling me that he didn't want to go watch Narnia coz he was afraid that he'll get nightmares. But when he woke up the next morning, I told him that he was the only one who was old enough to go watch a movie with us and the girls had to stay home, and we were going to bring him out for breakfast with Grace and Choo Choo. And I kept assuring him that the show wouldn't be too scary and that me and ND would be there for him, so he agreed to go along.
I think the actual movie experience was quite interesting for him. We gave him his own ticket stub and when he stepped into the cinema, I announced to him that "This is a cinema!". He was like "Wah!" Very "suaku" reaction if you ask me... Once, he got into his seat, he was glued to the screen. Big screen, loud sound system, plus popcorn. I think he quite enjoyed it. He didn't fully understand a lot of the show and I had to do some explaining along the way. 15min into the show, he asked me whether the show was ending. I had to tell him that it was a long, long show and wouldn't be ending so quickly. And he kept asking me,"it's going to show for a long, long time? Much longer than when I watch TV at home?"
Overall, he took to the movie pretty well. I thought the movie was pretty good. Not too scary, except for a scene towards the end which showed a sea serpent attacking the ship. That was the only part that he held on to me and tried to hide his face.
Ah, but with my boy, the litmus test is at night after he goes to bed. If it affects him, he would keep coming over to our bed every hour to tell us he's scared and wants us to switch on the light and sleep with him. Some days, he would stand beside our bed to cry and tell us he can't sleep, he's scared, he needs us to sleep with him. We will pray with him. Sometimes, we'll lie beside him for a while and there are some days, when we get cranky ourselves coz of his persistent crying and whinning hour after hour, that we'll lose it and order him to go to bed and close his eyes.
And so, that night, yes, unfortunately for us, he did wake up. I heard him go over to ND to tell him he was scared, and ND told him,"Go back and sleep, Caleb." Next thing I know, I felt him beside me trying to wake me up. I was really tired and I heard him say,"Mummy, I'm scared. What should I do?" And I remember telling him,"Pray, Caleb." Then I went back to sleep. I think he must have been exasperated not to get much responses from both of us or he must have been tired out, having to try so hard to wake us up, coz I found him asleep on his own bed in the morning. No crying or whinning from him. ND didn't even remember him waking up in the middle of the night at all. So, my conclusion? I think we can bring him out for more movies!
