You Call That A Kid's Movie?

Hubby and I are pretty strict about what we let Big Brother watch. And very strict with theSisters - as in they do not watch any. I really mean any tv, movies, youtube vidoes, dvds or anything else. TheSisters do not watch any. Big Brother has been allowed to watch some for aahile now. Somewhere around the time he turned three we started allowing it. Mostly because his love of hockey had started by then and we decided to let him watch some of a few games. For the entire first season he was only allowed to watch some of the games and not even every game. The second season he was permitted to watch all of the games but no more than one game a week until the play offs. At that point we allowed him to watch every game and we still do. The summer before he turned four we took him to his first movie (Wall-E). Since then we have allowed him to watch a few. We took him to see Up and Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. At home we have watched Cars, Snow White, The Little Mermaid, The Wizard of Oz, Return to Oz, an episode of Sesame Street, a handful of episodes of Arthur and maybe one or two things I am watching.

Now the funny thing is that in listing them like that I think "Wow! He really has watched plenty."Especially when you factor in all the hockey games he has watched. But I would venture to guess thee are a lot of people who could not list every movie and few tv shows their children had watched. You might look at that list and think it is incredibly small. And maybe it is but I like it that way. And Big Brother is a busy, imaginative, fun loving kid who can play for hours. TheSisters do not even know that they do not watc tv nor do they care. Sure, I know there are lots of cute shows out there. Sesame Street is great and Big Sister LOVES Elmo, Dora is cute, Read between the lions, Zaboomafu, etc. But I prefer to see my kids playing than in front of the tv. I am pretty much the anti-screen parent.

However, now that Big Brother is getting older and he does enjoy the occasional movie, tv show etc I have been thinking of things I remeber that he might enjoy. And considering his love of hockey I decided that I thought The Mighty Ducks might be a good movie. Hubby and I were a little nervous about this movie so we decided that we needed to watch it first. Normally Hubby will research a movie and its rating on Kids In Mind but their reviews of old movies is very sparce. So, we figured we could go ahead and watch it and decide for ourselves. And within half an hour we were so frustrated and disgusted that we turned it off.

The kids in the movie were obnoxious, they used terrible language. They adults were rude, the good guy adult (Emilio Estevez as couch Bombay) is drinking and driving, there is some pretty blantant sex talk. And so Hubby and I knew we would not allow Big Brother to watch this movie anytime soon. We might have watched the movie ourselves because truthfully I like it and I am old enough to handle it :) But I was so disgusted with the fact that this was supposed to be a kids movie that I could not take it anymore. I turned it off because I was so disappointed and I felt like Disney had let me down so tremendously. From whe I read the second Mighty Ducks movie may be better so I am planning on renting it and seeing if it is.

But my Aloha Friday question to you this week is at what age do you let your child watch a movie without investigating it or watching it first?
Posted on 1/28/2010 Labels: ,

25 Comments:

  1. OMG, I think when my girls have like 21 years old.

    Happy Friday!!

    PS: I became a follower of your blog.
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  2. Yikes...I don't think I will be allowing my children to see that one!!
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  3. I monitored what movies they watched until they left home. I've used Screen It for many many years. It's url is: http://www.screenit.com
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  4. I do not know. My oldest is 17 and I still know what he watches!
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  5. probably did it up until they left home!Aloha
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  6. probably i would do it until they leave home... but if they're raised in the right spirit, then they'll know what choices to make after that too!
    Happy Friday and here's my Aloha
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  7. Seriously, I wish I could say there is no age to let them watch freely. Unfortunately, they become teens and it gets hard to monitor things.

    http://iamharriet.blogspot.com/2010/01/i-love-to-listen-to-that-old-time-rock.html
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  8. If a movie is rated G, there usually isn't too much to worry about in my mind. Right now my oldest is 6 so we typically watch anything PG (like The Mighty Ducks) before he does to make sure it will be ok for him.
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  9. Teenage years I'm pretty lenient about what my kids watch but it also depends on the kid.

    My 13 yr old twins have been begging to see The Hangover because "everyone else in our grade has seen it!". Uh...that's awesome. I'm not everyone else's parent! Sheesh.

    I sometimes check out http://commonsensemedia.org to get a sense of a movie if I can't pre-screen but the less input someone has given on the movie, the less helpful it is. Like The Mighty Ducks for instance! One parent rating & nothing marked for sex & language
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  10. Probably in high school - but I would still investigate first and tell them what I thought. Then I would want to discuss their thoughts on the movie afterwards.....but I am not there yet so I don't know :)
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  11. My daughter is 15 going on sixteen and I still have to watch the movie first, Probably when she moves out of the house,LOL
    Here's my Aloha Friday link for you
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  12. I will probably always investigate what the movie is about and read reviews but probably around 8 or 9 we would stop pre-watching them. I know it gets difficult when the kids start to go to sleep overs. I remember always watching movies at slumber parties that my parents would have never let us at home.
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  13. My oldest is 8 and still pre-watch all movies not G rated and many G-rated movies(meaning rated PG - she doesn't watch anything but G or PG and she's only seen a few PGs).
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  14. I was raised in a household with no TV. While I think it was benefitial to watch less than average, I think that banning it outright is equivilant to banning books outright. It's a medium through which information is passed. Still, as with books, some caution is warrented. We haven't had our first yet, but I plan to be liberal with what they watch, as long as they are willing to discuss it with me. Which may not be as easy as it sounds.

    Because I wasn't allowed to watch anything, I make up for it now. And the first movie I saw in theatres was Pump Up The Volume, which helped set the tenor for my teen years. Of course, I had to sneak out to do it.

    I support people parenting in the way they feel comfortable. I'm just saying that banning something outright often leads to subterfuge. And your kids wanting playdates at the houses of folks who let them watch Bakugon.
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  15. We keep it with the age appropriate ratings. Even then we still watch it with them so we can throw in our 2 cents.

    At 17 my dd was so happy when she got to buy her own rated R movie ticket.
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  16. great question...
    my son is only 11 months old, so we do not have that problem yet...
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  17. We are pretty lax about what the kids watch. If we feel that what they are watching isn't appropriate we turn it off. Our biggest challenge is my husband thinks things are okay when I don't. He usually lets the boys watch stuff when I am not home and then I find out about it later. I have to constantly remind him of their ages and that what may be completely stupid to him can be a little scary for a kid.
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  18. I don't know really. My son is 10 and I usually preview movies that come out. He often wants to watch things that other kids get to watch, but I won't let him unless I have seen it first. I also go by the rating; no PG 13 movies. But you can't always tell by the rating now adays. There's language in all kinds of kids' movies and adult jokes.

    http://atticgirl.blogspot.com/2010/01/aloha-friday-how-was-your-day.html
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  19. Based on how things are on screen with drama and the most obnoxious kids possible. I will always be watching my kids movies and programs before they can see it.

    TV is what taught me that kids will always grow up and hate their parents.

    I refuse to let my kids think it's ok to behave obnoxiously and disrespectfully.
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  20. Everyone's comments have been great. I have appreciated hearing from so many of you that I am not the only one who is very mindful of what my kids are watching.

    betterbabybox, Maybe I did not explain myself correctly. We do not ban tv completely. Not for Big Brother anyway. We do for TheSisters but they are 17months and 10months. They do not care yet. :) Big Brother has never really asked to watch anything and been told no until now. This movie is the first thing we have come into contact with that he has wanted to see and we said no about. As for wanting playdates with friends whose parents will let him. Well, that is going to happen - pretty much unless I allow anything and everything - but at this point I know the parents of his friends and they know how I feel. So, I still have a little while before I have to worry about that. And really this movie was so shocking I cannot believe it is not rated PG 13.
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  21. My son is 17 and I let him go to Avatar with his friends. It helps that the rating system is a lot better than when the Mighty Ducks came out. I used Kid in Mind when my kids were younger also. My daughter is 19 and I don't monitor her anymore, but I remember when she was 15 and her friends wanted to know if she could watch R rated movies at sleepovers and I said no. She would roll her eyes, but it's okay, I don't mind being that mother. I wanted to help mold their values before they were exposed to things I didn't care for.
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  22. I totally understand. Either extreme is not going to work for kids. And yes, the sisters are certainly pre-TV age. Also, I don't think the kids are missing much by not watching Mighty Ducks. :D

    As a Canadian, I recommend the short cartoon The Sweater, about a boy in Quebec who gets sent the wrong team's sweater. It can be watched on the Nation Film Board website.
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  23. I'll screen movies until she's at least a teenager. There's a lot of crap out there that's just not fit for kids. Even cartoons are really violent now. I never gave a second thought to letting my almost 3 year old watch Disney cartoons till she saw Snow White. It scared the bejeesus out of her! She had nightmares for almost 2 weeks and still talks about "the eyes" and the guy that "kills Snow White." So now I screen everything.
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  24. The Mighty Ducks movies are for some reason on my list of top favorite movies ever.

    Now, I try to be pretty careful about what Mason watches, because he is now at the stage where he repeats everything he hears. I know he understands more than I think he does, so I definitely try to stick to very family friendly animated movies.
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  25. My daugher is only 15 months, but a resource that I plan to use is pluggedin.com by Focus on the Family. It is a great site for checking movies that are new to theaters, as well as TV, music and video games. For every movie it has a section for positive elements, sexual content, violent content, crude or profane language, drug and alcohol content, and other negative elements, as well as a recap for family friendliness. My mom used it when I was growing up. I of course thought it was lame then, but will definitely be using it to help screen what my children can watch! :)
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Thanks for your kind words! I love hearing from you.

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