Last night my 8 year old had a ton of homework and some tests to study for. She was in the shower and my husband took our little one downstairs to watch a movie so I could quiz my daughter and prepare her for her tests. She got out of the shower and put on her pajamas. She asked me to braid her hair so it would be curly in the morning and as she did her math homework, I brushed and braided. Afterward, she wrote a letter to her pen pal. Her school has a program with the education students at the local college so her and this college student write letters back and forth. It's cute. She wanted to make her a friendship bracelet, so she got out her string and began to work while I quizzed her for her social studies class. She was telling me all about abolitionists and the cotton gin and life in the South pre-civil war. I was very impressed. She is so smart. If she didn't know an answer she would look up at me with her big brown eyes and say, "Mom, can you give me a hint?" I remarked at how beautiful she is. Her hair in braids, her big eyes, her cute little button nose. I am in love with this child. She is so sweet and amazing. I don't know how in earth she came from me. Afterwards we sat shoulder to shoulder and read. It was nice and quiet and just the two of us. It made me so happy.
Afterwards we ventured downstairs to find the rest of our family. "What are you guys watching?" My husband replied, "This Wish Upon a Star movie. I hate it. The parents just let the kids do whatever they want." "That's every kids wish, isn't it?" I said while looking directly at my 6 year old. She shot me a dirty look. So I'm watching this movie and the daughter comes downstairs dressed in this skanky outfit and the parents let her go to school and at lunch she gets up and starts dancing on the table and all these 13-14 year old boys start cheering and "whooping". Then the parents get called in and the principal tells them that their daughter - this is an exact quote from the movie- "came to school dressed like a hooker and began dancing seductively on the lunch table." My jaw hit the floor. What the hell!?!? Did they just say the word hooker? I turned to my husband, "Why did you put this on?" He shrugged and said, "It was under Just for Kids on Netflix. It said, 'Family movies with a strong female lead'". I'm like, let's see what happens. So we fast forwarded a little bit until one of the girls asked the other girl if she was still a virgin. Oh.my.God. I'm open and I don't shelter the kids that much but 6 and 8 year olds don't need to be watching movies where teens are asking about each other's virginity. That is just not appropriate at all. My husband was like, "This movie is rated PG. But that was in 1996." What was going on in 1996 that this movie got a PG rating? Hookers and virginity, really? The 90's obviously were questionable. They were still marketing cigarettes to kids then.
I wish sometimes that I had one of those Men in Black memory erasers that I could use on the kids after they view something questionable.
"You never saw Wish Upon a Star, your mom didn't promise to buy you candy....."
Oh well, what's done is done. How do you explain hookers to a 1st and 3rd grader? Thanks Disney for introducing that into my household. I need to write Netflix a letter, at least move it to the Teen section. Live and learn. Note to self (and husband), watch the trailer before the movie, regardless of the rating.
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