He's recently been left slightly defenseless with the demise of his light saber however, he is still powerful with his mastery of the dark side of the potato field.
So much so that he is still pursuing the mandate set by his master, The Evil Emperor, to bring Luke Spudwalker over to the dark side. So far no dice, Pan Fry Solo and Princess Lays will have none of it.
Can you tell we've been watching the Star Wars movies? We have made it through the first five episodes and the kids are loving the movies. But I am questioning what possessed me to let my almost eight and five year olds watch them.
I have a post up at Canada Moms Blog about this.
Do you censor what your kids watch? Do you stick solely with Disney? Do your boys have an innate love of all things super hero?
Where do you draw the line? And if you do, is it to prevent nightmares or to keep them away from unnecessary violence?
So many questions, let's get talking!
11 comments:
Since my boys are a bit younger than yours I do limit what they watch. I know that I will continue to monitor what they watch until I know they have a firm grasp in the difference between reality and fantasy. My concern is that children now a day are totally desensitized to violence between the video games they are allowed to play and many of the shows they are allowed to watch. I often think that parents do not realize that children don't always understand that tv violence isn't real. I worry that the children of this generation will grow up thinking that if you shoot someone that all you have to do is hit restart and the person is fine. Now, am I going to always limit what my boys watch... no! But, I will watch what they watch for a long time and have an open conversation with them about reality and fantasy
oops sorry that was a longish rant
My boys love superheroes! Superman, Spiderman, Batman, etc. They seem to realize they are not real. They have seen bits and pieces of Star Wars, but that is because Husband was watching on TV, and he is less careful about what they see. You mention Hannibal Lecter in your post--people like that ARE real and that is frightening. I think I fall pretty much along the same lines as you. Slow exposure with lots of discussion along the way. And we don't have a gaming system in the house, so the kids have never played those games. They have played Wii Sports and that is it.
You need to go to Youtube and search for "grocery store wars". It is a really fun, cute, video where all the characters are food, Darth Tater, Chewbrocoli... The kids here love it and watch it over and over and over... look out for the Death Melon!
And yeah, no Disney here I'm afraid, its all about the Force, Indy and Spiderman right now.
Off to read your post!
(Though I'm supposed to be working right now...)
We recently watched the original 3 with our kids and they loved them...
You are one funny lady... "Pan Fry Solo and Princess Lays will have none of it"
I left my thoughts regrading this on Canada Moms.
:)
Gone are the treehouse shows....we are onto Ben 10, any superheroes and Indiana Jones.....
I think as long as your are with them watching you can monitor the violence and explain it properly, it is when parents let them watch all by themselves at like 3 and 4 that it is a concern for me.
Your questions came too fast so I'll just comment and in doing so maybe answer a couple. Just 2 days ago--no lie--my son asked to watch Star Wars. I told him he was too young (6). I said it had adult themes and he just wasn't ready.
He loves super heroes but last year switched to loving football more. I was happy with that.
I could discuss this ad nauseum as everyone has varied opinions. Essentially, it boils down to whether you think your kids can handle it and making sure to discuss the movies and situations thoroughly.
T.V. watching in our household is slowly moving from Treehouse to Teletoon. I find it interesting in having a almost 6 year old boy and a 4 year old girl how hard it is for the two of them to watch TV together. If Ty is in a "I don't care mood" Katie can get away with watching Treehouse and Playhouse Disney, but look out if it is 1:30, because Superfriends is on and nothing else exists. I find that they have a lot of questions about what they see on TV and that as a parent I need to be there with them to answer them. This morning Ty woke up before us and went and turned on the TV and I found him watching a western on Silver Screen TV. I asked him if he thought it was a show that he should be watching and he said it wasn't scary or too violent. I sat and watched with him and we talked about the white hats and black hats etc. It was quite interesting to see his take on it all.
ML
Ben has seen parts of some of the Star Wars movies mostly because Tim likes them so much and he will pop in a DVD just to watch some of his favorite parts (that are kid-friendly). But I don't think he's seen any of them from start to finish. He has seen The Incredibles which has some parts that are a little "scary" for him. But he's most certainly not really into superheroes, etc. At least not yet. : )
I think as long as you watch it with them and watch and listen for their reactions and turn it off if needed then it's just like anything else, okay in moderation...
Love the "tater" characters, that's hilarious!
you are too funny girl! for now... we are sticking with scooby doo!
This is the tough part as they start getting older and their friends are exposed to movies that I, well, wouldn't necessarily want my kids to watch. Good thing that the boy is his own censor board.
He's seen all the Star Wars movies, and the newest one when he was about 6, I guess.. he was okay. We rented Iron Man as hubby thought he would like it, but he did leave the room for some intense moments. But he is a little older than your boys, and is now full fledged into YTV. Spiderwick Chronicles was a huge hit for both him AND my 4 year old.
But his friends, this is what I don't get sometimes. I don't like to judge, but I don't understand it. His best friend has seen BORAT, the Dark Knight, some Will Farrell movies, etc, etc that I would deem totally inappropriate for kids. We're actually really good friends with the family too, but haven't ever said anything (if things get intense my boy will either say he doesn't want to watch, or will say he doesn't think it's appropriate for himself leaves the room).
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