12.02.2008

Censorship for kids!

When we were kids growing up, there were many things our parents put the kibosh on and kept us sheltered from : rap music, rock music, any music found on mainstream radio, The Simpsons, horror movies, crack smoking, swearing, vodka shooters and any movie with a rating higher than PG. Looking back I can certainly understand the extreme measures they went to to ensure that my brothers never saw a set of boobies before the age of 21 and I never saw a mans 'danger zone' until at least 3 years after I married.

I still remember going through the annual 5lb JC Penney catalog as a teen trying to find my style, and realizing that my mother had ripped out the 'lingerie' section in order to keep my brothers from fulfilling their curiosity by viewing middle aged women modeling granny panties or maternity bras. Very enticing.

When it came to movies and television, my parents were very guarded about what we were and were not allowed to watch. These rules lightened up quite a bit by the time my youngest brother was a teenager, but I had to live my younger years without the likes of "Roseanne" or "The Simpsons". Not good for a kid trying to be cool in the 5th grade.

Any time we watched a movie, my mother would sit in her chair, poised with the remote control to scan forward in case a woman were to dance bare chested across the screen. There had been more than one occasion where we would be watching a movie as a family when a love scene would suddenly appear and out of the corner of our eyes a small figure clad in flannel kitten pajamas would move in slow motion from the side shouting "No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!!!!" and block everyones view with her nightshirt. It was quite a picture.

Now-a-days we are used to seeing every movie imaginable with my parents. And I believe that they have become used to having grown children whom they don't have to censor movies for. It is because of this new and more grown-up life that we got caught in a sticky situation on Thanksgiving day.

As usual we were looking for a movie to go and see after Thanksgiving dinner. My dad suggested "The Four Christmases" with Reece Witherspoon and that guy that Jennifer Aniston once shouldn't have dated. I thought it looked funny and we decided to all go, Mr. Hot Pilot and Munchkin included.

We should have known something was amiss when we didn't see any other elementary aged children in the audience. Then Mr. Hot Pilot whispered "are you sure this is rated only PG?" to me as the rather grown-up previews flashed across the screen.

I hadn't even thought about what rating this movie was. I'm not accustomed to even thinking about it.

Then the first scene of the movie flashes up and after the two characters begin ripping each others clothes off in a bathroom, I realize we have trouble.

Without a second thought, Mr. Hot Pilot had Munchkin in a football hold and was racing down the steps and out of the theater. Looking back it was rather funny, although I was quite embarassed that we even went to see the movie with Munchkin.

Luckily we got our money back and all was right with the world again.

Maybe, just maybe, I will become the mom who will wear flannel kitten pajamas and ensure Munchkin never sees any womans bits and pieces until he is at least 35.

5 comments:

  1. Couldn't agree with you more on this. As a Christian homeschool mom, my kids are way out of touch with the "real" world - and for now, I have no problem with that. It's hard to monitor - but worth the effort! (By the way, how did you know about the flannel pj's?)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good for you! Nothing sadder than a jaded 8 year old. "Be careful little eyes what you see."

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh this brings back the memories of family movie nights.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This cracked me up. My mom always made us 'discuss' the bad scenes in a movie (after we had to watch them on fast-forward). I would have dont ANYTHING to avoid discussing that stuff with my mom... it was punishment enough. But she knew what she was doing, I still fast forward the bad parts of movies, and I'm 28. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. My Mom was pretty strict too. But I remember waiting until my Mom went to sleep and sneaking back down the stairs so that my older brother could watch Benny Hill! I was too young to understand the show or what the bid deal was for him but I thought it was so cool that he wanted me to participate in the sneaking out of bed part!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting! Hope to hear more from you in the future. Feel free to let me know what your web page address is so I can come and reciprocate!