Movies and children - how do you make your decisions? (parents, son)
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I dont have any children but growing up I wasnt allowed to watch rated-R movies until high school, I think my sophomore year lol. My parents used the rating system to judge what movies we saw together as a family and if we were going with friends they would go online and check the rating, reviews and trailer before saying yes.
We very rarely actually go to the movies, but we do get them from Redbox. We use the rating system and trailers, but my son (8) did see Transformers even though it was PG-13. Normally PG and G are deemed suitable. Also reviews from friends... I've heard great things about Bedtime Stories, and plan to go see that in the theaters this weekend.
When my kids were younger, if I questioned the movie - mainly PG-13 (which has a huge range possibilities), I went on a combination of the above things. I said no plenty of times. I remember my kids were sometimes upset since their peers would often see all kinds of things (kindergarteners seeing Titanic - WHY?). My kids survived.
I believe in letting kids watch or read whatever they want. If it is innapropriate for them, they will lose interest. If they are interested, it is probably something that they already have some understanding of, and will learn more about some day anyway.
When my kids were younger, if I questioned the movie - mainly PG-13 (which has a huge range possibilities), I went on a combination of the above things. I said no plenty of times. I remember my kids were sometimes upset since their peers would often see all kinds of things (kindergarteners seeing Titanic - WHY?). My kids survived.
UHHH!!! I would have died of torture had my parents let me watch Titantic at 5! I'm not a fan of that movie! It's soooooo long and boring IMO!
I believe in letting kids watch or read whatever they want. If it is innapropriate for them, they will lose interest. If they are interested, it is probably something that they already have some understanding of, and will learn more about some day anyway.
This is exactly how I feel. Some of my son's favorite movies are those not rated G or PG. He watches what he's interested in and most of the time, me and/or his father are just as interested.
Young children have an amazing capacity to filter and absorb material, and no movie is too long for them, if they are engrossed in it. I took my son to see "Ghandi" when he was about 6. That was a pretty long movie. He was on the edge of his seat through the whole things, and never even blinked. Of course, if your kids have been brainwashed to expect a commercial break every 8 minutes, then that would work against you.
When he was 6, I was reading "Out of Africa" to him, and about a quarter of the way through, the movie came to town, so I took him to see it, and resumed reading it afterwards. When I got to the plane crash part, he knew what was coming next and he said "I don't want you to read that part".
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