How do you handle your child when they want to watch a movie that is not appropriate?
Our daughters are barley 6 and 7 years old, their birthdays literally just passed a few weeks ago. They’re just starting to get to the age where they enjoy a wider range of movies and shows and not strictly the cartoon versions. (They still won‘t watch the 'real dog' version of "101 Dalmatians".) Loran is the oldest and she still has moments where she wants to watch "Caillou", "Sam & Cat", and "Franklin". While Jade lost interest in "Caillou" a while ago but is still a big "Dora" fan, loves "She-Ra" & "He-Man" and enjoys anything "Katy Perry". (Which isn’t normally a movie choice unless you own a concert or Documentary DVD, which we do.) Both girls enjoy watching "Full House", cooking shows/competitions and the movie "Grease". (They discovered Grease when both Loran and Jade‘s kindergarten song was based from the original version on Summer Lovin‘ and I couldn‘t help but YouTube the scene and they were hooked after that.) Their brother Mj is more into shows like Wild Man and movies like Transformers and others that are similar. (He has different rules when he‘s not at our house and watches a wider variety.)
Our kids like variety!! It makes life interesting and I couldn’t ask for anything better J
When it comes to inappropriate movies and shows for our kids, my fiance and I have 2 completely different opinions. My fiance believes that pretty much anything goes! He was one of those kids that was watching Rambo and Terminator at age 5, apparently there is also a Rambo cartoon that I’d never heard of before I met Alan. The only decent shows that I’ve heard about him watching as a child is “Thundercats” and “He-Man”! The man had never heard of the nursery rhyme “How much is that doggie in the window” until I mentioned it, after our 2 daughters were born! So as you see, Alan don’t really get to chose which movies are appropriate for our kids often, unless it’s a cartoon… he does pretty well with little girl cartoons… you can’t go wrong with most of them. Grown-up movies is where we clash. Most of the time, Alan simply tells the kids to “Go ask Mommy” when he’s not sure if I would approve of their choice of movie.
When it comes to what I believe is an inappropriate movie/show, it varies. As a child I was very quiet and ended up being a tomboy outdoors and a girlie girl indoors. I wasn’t around anything inappropriate on my tv until my mama and daddy split up. I discovered many inappropriate shows and movies and I don’t want my kids brought up watching vulgar TV.
When my girls ask if they can watch a movie and it turns out to be a grown-up movie is to make sure that I’ve seen it before so I know what’s going to happen. (Grown-Up Movies what we call movies with real people in them unless it‘s one of the Tween/Teen shows like on Nickelodeon and Disney and then we use the term -Their Shows) The Movies and tv shows that I don’t allow my kids to watch (not even my youngest step-son who is age 10) are the ones with lots of cussing, vulgar/grown-up jokes, visible sex (Where body’s are seen, action is visible and sounds are loudly heard! Scenes like the ones in Dirty Dancing are fine… for the most part) blood and death, etc - The normal no-no’s that most parents worry about.
I simply tell the kids that the movie they chose is a grown-up movie and they aren’t allowed to watch it. For the most part, they take it very well. Sometimes they respond with “When I get as big as you Mommy, then can I watch it?” or “I‘ll watch it when I turn 22, okay Mommy!” They’ve been hung up on the age 22 for just over 3 years, since I was 22. If they don’t say 22, they say 25 and I’m sure in a few months it will be 26... Which is the age I will be in October J My girls have quiet a temper sometimes but I don’t remember one time that they've gotten mad at me over not being able to watch a movie. Except maybe when I banned Sponge Bob for a few months…. That caused a few tears but once I explained my reasons and let them quietly cry for a minute longer, just to get it out of their system, they would be perfectly fine and chose something else to watch and everything goes back to normal. My girls are pretty easy going about movies and tv show choices most days, they only seem to argue the choices out with each other, not my fiance and I. I’m sure I’ll have challenges here and there as they get older but I’ll cross that bridge when we get there!
Even though movie choices don’t cause a big fuss in my house… try and tell the girls that they can’t have a whole bag of chips when it’s 20 minutes until Supper time…. THEN you have a whole different situation on your hands!
I would like to hear your opinion on the subject as well!
How do you tell your kids that the movie they chose is inappropriate?
Would you consider Dirty Dancing and Grease to be to inappropriate movie choices for a children ages 6-8?
This post was created as an entry in a Blogger Writing Contest held by +Mommy Bear Media. I was to write a post using the question asked below. Among all of the bloggers who entered the contest, I WON!!! I could hardly believe it when I opened the email! :) I got to chose 2 movies as my prize. I chose "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" & "Smurfs" which will both be put to good use! I'm so excited!!
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