Amen! While in a third grade class this year I had an 8 year old tell me that when he gets older he wants to remake his two favorite movies — Scarface and the Punisher!!! Apparently he watches them all the time with his mother.

My sister called me last summer and asked if I had seen that horror movie “Hostel” and I said yes. Then she asked me if she thinks her 7 year old could watch it and I FREAKED out on her. Then she laughed and said “That’s what I thought. My neighbor let her 8 and 6 year old watch it the other day!” And apparently they watched enough of it that they were describing everything in detail to my 7 and 4 year old nephews. Needless to say she threw those kids out of her house for the week.
I really don’t know why parents let their kids see some of the movies they do. Cursing and fighting, whatever. Sex and bloodshed, what the Hell??????????

I tend to be lax in other ways with what my kids watch. I tailor my censorship according to their personalities. For example, my 9 y.o. is fine watching action movies with some violence in them–the Bourne movies, Spiderman, and most Jackie Chan movies (but not Rumble in the Bronx, we had to turn that one off, we had forgotten that that one was different). But, she can’t stand anything violent that happens to animals. If there is a scene with a dog being kicked or anything like that, she just freaks out.

Personally, I don’t care much about language, so that’s not on my radar. Sex and graphic violence are what I screen for.

But, even with our own guidelines, if my kids are going to watch something that’s not rated G and other kids are over, I call the parents to ask specifically for permission. The Blues Brothers had language, so I needed to call and ask the parent of a 13 year-old for permission to have her kid watch it at our house (and she said it was fine).

I wish other parents would just do that, just pick up the phone and call for permission before assuming that if it’s fine for their kid, it’s fine for everyone. And, I would say something to that mother about it, casually. I’d just ask if her daughter had any reaction to the movie they saw, because Ella had nightmares from it, so from now on you think she ought to stick with G-rated movies unless you’ve pre-screened them. I think something like that, you can approach it in a non-accusing manner and then it’s out there and the mom knows how you feel about it.

Everyone makes mistakes, lol. We found out that Rumble in the Bronx was inappropriate the hard way. We’d seen it ages before and just thought the R rating was for language. But, no, it’s really very rough and my poor middle one (she was only about 6 at the time, too) was just horrified, she was bawling, “Those men are HURTING Jackie Chan mommy, he’s BLEEDING, Jackie Chan is BLEEDING!” So, I like to think we’re not alone in having a movie play halfway through before realizing we’ve made a grave error. Maybe those parents did the same, maybe they just didn’t realize it was SO bad?

I’ve got to know though, what was the movie? Some of those scenes sound familiar.

Her view of movies/TV is not far off from a young child, and she takes what she sees on the tube as reality. I don’t think it is inappropriate at all for you to be concerned and voice that to your pal.

Maybe she just didn’t realize — it happens to all of us. I know teachers that have been showing PG movies in their classrooms and have to sprint to the TV when “questionable” material arises.

I’m an adult — and I can’t handle ANY scary movies — even the stupid “Scream” franchise freaks me out, nightmares for days. Just thinking about it now creeps me out. Perhaps your friend’s daughter isn’t affected by this — some kids aren’t. But I for one agree with your concerns 100%!