Thread: It's called a rating system.

I was doing dishes when my wife asked me about Avatar. I turned of fthe water to hear her clearly and asked, "what?".
She said, "Do you think Avatar is appropriate for A.very(5)."
"What are you kidding? Not even close."
"Her friend who's 6 saw it."
"Are you kidding?",I replied, "Even if she understood the story line in the movie there are big ferocious beasts with sharp teeth chasing people, guns and violence, explosions, and even some choice language I wouldn't want A.very repeating."

I know that bringing up parenting issues to this forum is asking for trouble, but I had to just put this out cause it irks me.

Obviously we have a rating system fo rmovies to guide us to make choices for our children with respect to what they watch and listen to.

I just don't understand ho someone who undertakes the awesome responsibility of being a parent lacks the judgement in taking thier children to movie with content not of thier age. Is seeing a movie so important to a person that they will actually bring thier child to see it regardless of content.

I've seen this happen with other forms of media as well. I had a patient tell me about how her friend allows her son to play violent video games. (believe me this was a long drawn out conversation in which she was defending the parents) I just wish I could have soemone answer for me: "When is the right time to expose a child to media of violent content, language and sex?"

(That was a rhetorical question.)

My sister and I went to see Hancock. There was a couple of women there with 5 kids that looked to be 8 or so and under. We were in shock. Hancock was NOT a movie her 11 yr old should watch, much less little ones.



Why bother having the ratings if nobody uses them?

When we saw American Psycho there were small children in the theater.....from ages 3 -9 or 10!! I could not believe it!

We watched it at a friends house in the presence of her 4 year old. I did not even think about it, honestly... cause I don't have kids and such things just don't occur to me. I guess now that you mention it we probably shouldn't have done it... but she didn't really watch it, so much as played w/ her toys while in the same room w/ us. I'm sure she saw some of it here and there but she never brought anything up to her mom as far as I know. Now I kind of feel bad.

I saw worse movies growing up when I was young as 6. I remember watching Saturday Night Fever in 1980., nice rape scene I remember. Can't remember how many times I saw The World According To Garp., great scene of a BJ turned castration., or Hotel New Hampshire., rape, sex, incest, suicide. Not to mention all the Halloween, Jason & Freddy movies., I remember seeing The Exorcist & The Shining before I was 8 and all the T&A movies of the early 80s., Caddyshack, Porky's, etc...

Tell me you never watched thise movies growing up?

Originally Posted by dv8grl

I saw worse movies growing up when I was young as 6. I remember watching Saturday Night Fever in 1980., nice rape scene I remember. Can't remember how many times I saw The World According To Garp., great scene of a BJ turned castration., or Hotel New Hampshire., rape, sex, incest, suicide. Not to mention all the Halloween, Jason & Freddy movies., I remember seeing The Exorcist & The Shining before I was 8 and all the T&A movies of the early 80s., Caddyshack, Porky's, etc...

Tell me you never watched thise movies growing up?

No. The covers for the movies where way to frightening for me. I just avoided them. And I didn't have friends who would secretly watch them with me for fun.

Originally Posted by dv8grl

I saw worse movies growing up when I was young as 6. I remember watching Saturday Night Fever in 1980., nice rape scene I remember. Can't remember how many times I saw The World According To Garp., great scene of a BJ turned castration., or Hotel New Hampshire., rape, sex, incest, suicide. Not to mention all the Halloween, Jason & Freddy movies., I remember seeing The Exorcist & The Shining before I was 8 and all the T&A movies of the early 80s., Caddyshack, Porky's, etc...

Tell me you never watched thise movies growing up?

I didn't watch any of those movies growing up...of course I was grown up when they came out. Heck...I haven't seen most of those movies listed. However, my parents were very strict when I was growing up about the movies we did see.

I so agree with the OP. When we saw "The Hangover" and "The Ugly Truth", which both had extremely adult content...there were 10 and 11 year olds in the theater. There were younger children as well, but I don't think they understood what all the sexual references were about. It was the 10 and 11 year-olds that bothered me. They were there with their parents. I just think that there are lazy parents who want to see the movies they want to see and don't want to deal with a sitter...so they bring their kids along.

We did take our 10-year old grandson to see Avatar...with his parent's permission. He was very much into the 'action' of the film and not scared by some of the 'scary' images. The one 'sexual' scene was so esoteric that he didn't even understand what happened. I confess...I don't remember the language being too bad...and I am usually quite sensitive to that.