Ouija for 11-Year olds?

[Cloud]

ha! about half of us think the other half is crazy!

[sweetwater]

Originally Posted by Cloud

ha! about half of us think the other half is crazy!

Who'd a thunk it? Though I just saw something much worse than a Ouija board - that huge caterpillar. Maybe we should let the 11 year olds play with them instead of buying stuff, eh?

[no, I don't know why caterpillars give me the creeps. Perhaps a bad experience in a previous life? ]

[Shawnee123]

I'd rather have 11 year old girls playing with a Ouija board than with Bratz dolls. Now THOSE are creepy!

Wow, I'm amazed at how many adults think there is something to Ouija. Not dissin' you; I certainly have some odd views on some things, but I just didn't expect it.

[Pie]

(What happens is some smart-ass kid like me directs the board for maximum freak-out of the nervous nellies involved... they never recover.) At least, that's how I did it when I was a kid. No, I'm not sorry, why do you ask?
:p

[skysidhe]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

I'd rather have 11 year old girls playing with a Ouija board than with Bratz dolls. Now THOSE are creepy!

Wow, I'm amazed at how many adults think there is something to Ouija. Not dissin' you; I certainly have some odd views on some things, but I just didn't expect it.

I'm not sure who you are responding to. Maybe the 8 other people that said 'no way'.

I don't understand why those who do not believe in ghosts would want their kids to pretend to talk to them nor would I understand why people who do believe in ghosts would want a small kid to meet one. Seems whacked either way.

There are so many fun games out there. I wonder what the allure is to Ouija?

[SteveDallas]

Originally Posted by Pie

(What happens is some smart-ass kid like me directs the board for maximum freak-out of the nervous nellies involved... they never recover.) At least, that's how I did it when I was a kid. No, I'm not sorry, why do you ask?
:p

So what messages did you have the board cough up?

[wolf]

Originally Posted by skysidhe

There are so many fun games out there. I wonder what the allure is to Ouija?

It's because of the potential for danger, like chanting "Bloody Mary" three times while standing in front of the bathroom mirror in the dark.

Which is what the girls will end up doing whether or not they get the Ouija Board.

It's slumber party tradition.

[HungLikeJesus]

Originally Posted by skysidhe

...

I don't understand why those who do not believe in ghosts would want their kids to pretend to talk to them nor would I understand why people who do believe in ghosts would want a small kid to meet one. Seems whacked either way.

...

It's just like Santa Claus. Even parents who don't believe in Him still pretend He exists. Think about the children!

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by skysidhe

I'm not sure who you are responding to. Maybe the 8 other people that said 'no way'.

I may be paranoid, but is there a tone there?

Yeah, I'm talking about adults who believe that you can contact ghosts through a board game. This is not commentary on whether or not ghosts exist: it's the ridiculous notion that a board game has even the slightest possibility of conjuring one up.

That's the beauty of it when you're a kid: just maybe, you think. Once I hit teenager I knew better.

As I said: for sheer creepiness, Bratz dolls are ten times creepier than a piece of cardboard. Big giant misshapen heads with impossibly giant eyeballs on a little plastic body: they look like those creepy Olsen twins.

[skysidhe]

Originally Posted by wolf

It's because of the potential for danger, like chanting "Bloody Mary" three times while standing in front of the bathroom mirror in the dark.

Which is what the girls will end up doing whether or not they get the Ouija Board.

It's slumber party tradition.

Exactly, I played Ouija because my friends got ahold of one in the 5th grade. It was ilicit so therefore exciting.

I can't imagine a parent pulling one out and saying, "hey try to reach the dead would ya!"


lol HLJ

[Pie]

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

So what messages did you have the board cough up?

Usually that someone (nobody liked) was going to die, or the boy of the month did/didn't really like them, or so-and-so's mom was going to have another kid (I got that one right)... And once, I predicted that the answer to the second question on the math test would be 4.5. I was wrong on that one.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by skysidhe

I can't imagine a parent pulling one out and saying, "hey try to reach the dead would ya!"

And yet that's exactly what this thread was about. A parent wondering if they should pull out a ouija board as a planned party activity for kids.

I played with them once or twice as a kid going over to friends' houses, but it was never the parent proposing we play the game. I figured out pretty quickly that you could push the thing around yourself to make it say what you wanted to. The game became who would push harder.

I played a lot of games that would get the parents in trouble if they were the ones who came up with them. "You show me yours, and I'll show you mine" is one that comes to mind. Oh, and "burn the stump out with gasoline" is another. "Launch the froggies" was a mean one. I think kids had a lot less supervision back then.

[DanaC]

Actually, I'm pretty sure the first time I ever tried a ouija board it was a homemade affair that my bro knocked up and mum played along.

Mind you. Mum liked all that scary stuff. I remember after watching some alien movie or other, we (in this context 'we' almost always refers to me, my bro and mum) went alien hunting. Was well past midnight and the three of us and the dog bundled into the car to go driving about the country lanes on the outskirts of town. We were armed with torches, cheese spread sandwiches and a flask of hot tea (obviously....). I think I was probably about 10 or so.

That was such a fun night. We went down this one lane and it was pitch black, narrow and winding, the only light the two beams from the car; and all that did was cut a little way into the darkness. All of a sudden there's something in the road up ahead. No word of a lie it looked like a body. lol. was some black binliners blown half way into the road. The dog was going mental. Took us a few seconds and a slow approach to realise what it was:P

One brilliant thing about my mum: she really knew how to encourage flights of imaginations and total immersion in whatever fantasy we engaged in.


[eta] it might complete the picture if I add that the car in question was a tiny battered up Mini estate, with no heat. Just three of us and a dog and plumes of breath.

[HungLikeJesus]

That's a beautiful image, Dana.

[Aliantha]

In Australia we just go toad hunting.

The aliens aren't half as much fun here.