Hear No Evil

OK, so when I was younger, I always thought older people, or people who were parents were so uptight. I couldn't really understand their anal attitudes towards movie content and language. I grew up in a movie theatre, so to speak. My family ran the only theatre in a very small town. So I watched every movie that came our way. I believe I was about 10 the first time I saw "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". Big deal, right?



Remember "The Gong Show"? If so, do you remember "The Gong Show Movie"? I do. I was probably 8 or 9. My mom was married to Stormin' Norman: Bald Freak of the Sawtooths at the time. Anyway, my brothers and I were sitting up in the balcony (which was closed to the general public) watching this display of class when Norman came stormin' up the stairs and nearly dragged us out of the place. We were in an uproar. "Why can't we watch it? It's not like we haven't seen r heard any of this before!" We were all of 8, 10, and 13 at the time. As I became an adult my opinion about this really hadn't changed. I figured, kids hear things at school, even on TV, so what's the big deal about them seeing and hearing it on movies? I seemed to turn out OK, I don't think it will hurt them.

Well, now, I have my own kids. And, well, things have changed a little. At first it wasn't so bad. Annie was only 2 when I got her and didn't really seem to pick up and reuse much of what was being said around her. So I didn't really think much about taking her to whatever movie we wanted to see. Then I took her with us to see "Phone Booth." Have you seen it? Not much to the dialogue...just the same few words over and over. That's when I suddenly found myself becoming more sensitive to the language on our entertainment. Then, as Annie got a bit older, and now I have two younger boys, I became even more sensitive. Prime time TV doesn't come on in my home now until after 8:00 when the kids are in bed. (Thank goodness for TIVO.) I mean, I don't want to sound like a prude or anything, and I don't think I am. I still like my cop shows, murder mysteries and such. Blood and gore doesn't bother me. But I'm finding it's not so good for the kiddos.

My kids are all drug and alcohol effected, and have their own issues. Annie, even though she was taken from her birth mom at 18 months, still at age 8 has nightmares about the violence she endured. Maybe if my kids didn't already have their own special issues going on, I wouldn't be quite so sensitive. But I've heard what certain expletives sound like coming from a 3-year-old's mouth (taught to him by his birth family), and it really isn't fun or funny.

Where's all this going? My kids and I like to have Family Movie Night on Friday nights. I have an account with NetFlix so I never have to remember to go rent a movie, they just come in the mail each week like magic! Last week I rented "She Gets What She Wants" thinking it would just be a fun teenie-bopper movie that the girls would love. What it really was was an exercise in the many ways to say the B word. I nearly turned it off, but we got through it. My other mistake was letting them watch that volley ball movie, "All You've Got" on New Year's Eve. Then, when Annie wanted to use her birthday money to buy it I had to sit down and explain what a mistake I'd made letting them watch it in the first place and that it would be several years before they were ready to see it again.

Don't misread me here. I'm not saying any of these movies are bad (I'm not saying they're good...I'm not saying either way. But I will say I don't recommend "Phone Booth" unless you just want to look at Colin Farrell...though he's got better movies you could look at him in. OH, tangent.) I'm just saying that something in my brain has changed, and now I find myself being more sensitive to what's said and shown in movies and on TV when my kids are watching. Even the kid movies...we took the kids to see two movies on Monday, "Flushed Away" (which I do highly recommend for kids of all ages!) and "Open Season" (which was also very good) and by whatever coincidence, in both movies every deal was sealed by spitting on the hand and shaking. Seems innocent enough. Except that now I have to do this several times a day with my 3 year old. Although this is NOT as bad as spitting out the sea water from "Madagascar"! And definitely not as bad as Stuart Little teaching him to say "WHAT THE..."

OK, well, this has gone on long enough. If you're still with me, thanks for stopping by!!