How do you convince a child to give certain attractions a chance?

[hominamad]

I'm taking my 7 year old son to WDW for his first time in mid-November. In general he likes rides - but mostly he's only been exposed to carnival-type rides. This summer he also rode a fairly sizable wooden roller coaster in a nearby amusement park. Now in preparation for our trip, I've been talking with him about all the different rides and a lot of them he is anxious or nervous about and says he doesn't want to go on them. Haunted Mansion is one example, but I can understand that one at least. But now he's saying he doesn't want to ride Splash Mountain or Big Thunder Mountain. He's been on roller coasters bigger than these before and loved it - and he's been on log flumes, etc as well. He loves Aerosmith (the band) and at first was so excited about Aerosmith (the ride) but now he's having second thoughts about that too.

I'm trying to think about how I can convince him to give some of these rides a shot. It will be very frustrating if we get there and he doesn't want to go on any of the attractions. Based on what he's been on and enjoyed in the past, I know he would love these rides, but he is a bit afraid of the unknown.

One thing I'm trying to do is show him some YouTube POV videos so he can see what the rides are like, but that doesn't work very well for the dark rides. Anyone have any words of wisdom to share on this topic?

 

[KarenKlo]

WE did actually force my 8 yo nephew this summer. I love him but the kids is a well-known cry baby! He cried before EVERY ride. Then after it was over, he was asking to ride it again!! He cried the whole way thru HM until the ride started, then he just loved it. I tried to get him to stop crying in line, but to no avail! I am sure we all looked like evil people forcing a crying kid thru the line! I did sit out ToT with him and he was mad at me when everyone else got off and was talking about how much fun they had! I take it back-he did NOT cry before IASW!!

 

[Weather_Lady]

Look up the attractions he's worried about on Youtube and let him experience them virtually. That may soothe some of his fears.

 

[MCRRBA]

There has been some great advice here. I think the youtube idea is great. Also starting off slowly on the "tamer rides' and building your way up helps establish confidence. My oldest son has always been wary of heights and we worked on building him up. We made it up to splash mountain he was willing to go but after the drop that was it. At the time he was 14 and his two younger brothers were 6 and 4 they went back on a second time while he waited it out at the bottom. That was 16 years ago (no Youtube) he still wary of heights and selective about what rides he does.

 

[djpoore94]

As someone who was forced to ride roller coasters as a kid ("we paid a lot of money to come here, you're not going to sit on a bench all day") I say don't force it. I'm now 41 years old and I still don't like roller coasters for the most part. I do like smaller ones like BTMR, but I'm terrified to even try EE, RNR (upside down, are you kidding me?) or the like. I think that experience at 8 or 9 years old ruined roller coasters for me.

 

[awoogala]

I was watching some YouTube videos last night with him. I couldn't believe it but out of all the rides, he's set on going on Space Mountain. I don't know how he can think that and then not want to go on Splash Mountain. He really just has no clue what any of these rides are like. I'm going to start him out slow - was thinking of doing Peter Pan as our first ride of the day.

My kid who does not like heights, freaked OUT the first time on Peter Pan because we "lied" and it was "up in the air".
Now it's her favorite ride, but she would not touch it at 7!