Is Halloween Too Scary For Your Kids?

In the past three nights I have watched quality television such as The Walking Dead, Survival of the Dead, and Diary of the Dead. Judging my taste in TV and movies aside, it is pretty easy to tell Halloween is upon us.

Cable network AMC has started its AMC Fear Fest and the SyFy network has already been rolling out creepy flicks during its 31 Days of Halloween. The horror of Halloween is inescapable on TV.

For parents, this can be a problem. With younger children, it can be incredibly difficult to make sure they aren't seeing shows and movie that will scare them and cause them nightmares. And as Dr. Bob Wilmott said in a recent article in St. Louis Health & Fitness, Halloween can cause problems, especially for younger children.

Thinking about Halloween from a child's perspective, it isn't difficult to see why it might frighten some children, particularly those with phobias or more timid personalities. People wear costumes and masks and put scary decorations in their yards or businesses. Ghost stories abound and scary movies can be found on many different channels.

How do you as a parent approach Halloween with the scare factor? Do you make sure your children don't see anything scary on TV or do you let them have a taste of the Halloween hooplah?