Where the Wild Things Are

A couple weeks ago I went to see Where the Wild Things Are. I truly feel like adults can learn a lot from this movie. Before I go any further, however, its important to know that I am by no means a movie critic and this is not meant to be a movie review.

I'm sure most of you have read the book, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and understand the premise. The young boy gets in trouble and is sent to his room. During this time in his room he loses himself in his imagination. He finds himself in a dark and somewhat scary place trying to work through his uncomfortable feelings.

The movie truly brings this to life and you can feel what Max was feeling when his mom was yelling at him saying, "What is wrong with you Max?!?!" Prior to the yelling Max was clearly trying to get his stressed and preoccupied mom's attention. His mom did not realize this and her confusion for his behavior quickly turned to frustration...and eventually to anger as his attention getting behavior got worse. I think we can relate to this.

What stood out to me the most was watching this all unfold and seeing the fear in Max's eyes. Nobody likes to get yelled at and imagine being yelled at by the person you are supposed the trust the most? Pretty scary. I'm sure most of us have been on the giving and receiving end of times like those. It was easy to see how terrible these moments must feel to children.

We saw the world that Max went to in his head at this time. We see that children can find coping mechanisms when they are scared and feel unloved. However, I think it's important for us to think about if we need to put our children in these positions where they are having to find these types of coping mechanisms. I am not saying children should never have to feel sad or anger or other strong emotions. Of course they need to experience these emotions so they can learn how to cope with them. However, there are emotions that come because of typical life events and then there are strong emotions that are created by unfortunate circumstances that we find ourselves in with our children...we know the ones.

It's not always easy to try to put ourselves in a child's shoes and truly see things from their perspective. Maurice Sendak certainly had gift for understanding children. I know it took him a long while to find someone to do justice to his book in a film. He wanted movie goers to grasp this concept: to see life through the eyes of a child...a gift I would wish for everyone.