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31st August 2020
11:37pm BST
The mum explains how she vaguely remembered watching the movie when it first came out, and hazily recalled a few mild adult themes, some swearing and a few sexist clichés, but nothing she felt would be too much for her 10- and eight-year-olds.
"And it was being offered on the child-friendly streaming service Disney+, so surely it wouldn’t contain anything too risqué!"
Well, turns out – she was wrong. But not in a way she could have predicted, to be fair.
Here is what happened next:
"Little did I know when I said yes to watching this movie that a single throw-away line would prove to be the undoing of eight wonderful years of Christmas magic for my son," she writes.
"At the 10-minute and 44-second mark, Katherine Heigl’s perennial bridesmaid character, Jane Nichols, says to James Marsden’s smarmy journalist character, Kevin “Malcolm” Doyle: “That’s so noble of you. Do you also go around telling small children that Santa Claus doesn’t exist? ‘Cause someone needs to blow that shit wide open.”
Yikes.
On hearing this line, the woman's son, who is eight, suddenly took notice.
"On hearing this, my eight-year-old son looked up at me with his big brown eyes and, in a shaky voice, asked, “Mum, is that true that Santa Claus doesn’t exist?”
Literally, my heart breaks for both this mum and her son at this stage.
The mother explains that she froze for a second when her son asked her that question.
"I froze like a deer in the headlights and stole a desperate glance at my non-believing daughter, silently begging her for help. Quickly catching on, she’d reassured him, “Of course he’s real, silly!”
But it was a case of too little, too late, unfortunately.
"When I wasn’t quick enough to hide my hesitation, he saw the truth written all over my face. In that moment, I watched as my boy’s precious heart shattered into a million tiny pieces and eight years of lovingly crafted Christmas magic streamed down his face."
The woman is quick to point at that while she knows that all children grow up and at some point figure out the Santa thing, she very much feels like this shouldn't have been the way her son had to find out. Especially from a movie that was rated as appropriate for children.
"Unlike other streaming services, Disney+ promotes itself exclusively as “family-oriented entertainment," she writes.
"But surely a movie that has a revelation that Santa Claus isn’t real should NOT be available on a “family-friendly” streaming service! I’m not saying it’s a terrible movie, or that families won’t enjoy watching it together, but I believe Disney+ has a responsibility to provide a better guide for parents on individual films that have the potential to cause our kids distress."
What do YOU think, parents? Would YOU have been upset at this? Tell us what you think in the comments or tweet us at @herfamilydotieExplore more on these topics:
