The Dark Side of Childhood: Why Kids are Drawn to Scary Stories

It is easy to see Halloween as an inappropriate time for children. With its mixture of bloody costumes and scary themes, it can often feel like it is luring kids into topics they are not ready to grapple with. However, since the time of fairy tales, the gothic and the macabre have held a fascination for children. Why? Some of the most classic children's stories are scary and, at times, brutal. They involve wolves eating grandmothers, witches trying to eat kids, kids pushing witches into ovens and stepmothers trying to poison their stepdaughters or use them as slaves.