My partner and I are lucky because we both work from home. This allowed one or the other of us to provide our daughter, D, with pretty constant entertainment when she was a baby and toddler and to delay her introduction to screens.

This is a luxury, I know. We thankfully didn’t even have to grapple with the issues of how much screen time and what type of content is most appropriate for the youngest kids.

I don’t know if this lack of screen time at a very early age contributed to D’s sensitivity to videos and movies as an elementary school kid, but their dramatic effect on her was obvious. One day, D’s kindergarten teacher told us that the generally happy-go-lucky D had burst into tears during music class and couldn’t be consoled.

The kids had been watching a short video in which, D reported, a farmer was yelling at a duck. The rest of the class thought it was hilarious, but D later said she was afraid the farmer would hurt the duck.

My partner and I decided that it was time to introduce her to videos and movies. We wanted her both to develop a love for great films and also to simply be able to function in a world in which she was going to be exposed to more and more media at school, at friends’ houses, and so on.

We had some successes and some bumps in the road in this endeavor. Every time I mentioned our situation to a group of parents, inevitably at least one other parent claimed his or her kid was in the same boat. This child had been completely gutted by some old Disney movie and refused to ever watch another movie again.

So D and I are sharing our experiences so other sensitive kids can enjoy movies and won’t have deal with some of the difficulties she did. Keep in mind that because of children’s development and attention spans, all our movie recommendations are for those who are six and up.

And most important, remember that this period of sensitivity is most likely just a phase that will pass sometime between second and fourth grade. So be patient—it’s just a matter of time before you’ll be ensconced on the couch with a bowl of popcorn enjoying the original Star Wars trilogy with your kid.