By now you've gotten out of bed, had your coffee, and probably turned on the news and seen that there was a shooting last night in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado at a midnight showing of the Dark Knight Rises. 12 people were killed and the gunman is in custody. Media outlets and other various pundits and talk boxes are clamoring for more gun control. None of these things were surprising to me. In fact, it was an entirely different aspect of this whole situation that's bothering my motherly instincts right now.
Did you know a 12 year old was in the theater watching this movie? Without his parents?
The Dark Knight Rises is rated PG-13. So my question is why was this 12 year old child in the movie theater without parental guidance?
I'm a huge fan of the Batman franchise. I loved the latest movies, especially the late Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker. The first movie wasn't disturbing or overly dark, but the second movie (with the aforementioned character) was rather dark. Harvey Dent's makeup after half his face was burned off was a little disturbing to me and I'm an adult. I've been looking forward to this last movie coming out for a long time.
But if I had a child who was under the age of 17, I don't think I would've let him go to this movie without me. I might've sat in a different part of the theater (if my child were 15 or 16) or I would've seen it first and talked to my child about it. Sending a child into this movie without parental guidance is like sending a soldier into a battle zone without a gun. How can that child be prepared for what he's going to see?
Nate and I both like shows that 2.0 can't watch. Not now, not for a long time if ever. I try not to watch Criminal Minds in front of my son and I don't watch True Blood or The Tudors in front of him ever. When I was checking out Nip/Tuck (which was awful by the way) and Dexter (which I really liked), I didn't watch those in front of him either. Nate likes Star Trek Voyager, especially the Borg episodes, but those are a little scary for a kiddo like mine and we don't watch those episodes in front of him. So far, 2.0 has never been to a movie theater, but when he goes for the first time, he's definitely not going to see something like The Dark Knight Rises or The Hunger Games (which was amazing as well) or Twilight. Right now, the only thing 2.0 is allowed to watch unsupervised is Sesame Street.
If we don't protect our kids, who will?
When I went to the Hunger Games back in March, I had no idea what I was about to see. I went with a group from church that included a group of younger girls (tweens I guess they're called now). You know what the parents with me did? They not only read the books so they would be able to talk to their kids about them, but they sat in the row directly behind them so that if something had happened that bothered them or caused them to have questions, the parents were right there. The Hunger Games was rated PG-13. When I went to see Breaking Dawn this past November, one mom asked her sixteen year old daughter to miss the midnight showing because of the sexual content of Bella and Edward's wedding night, allowing the mom herself to see the movie first to make sure it was appropriate for her daughter. Then they went to see the movie together.
Sometimes we have kids who are more mature than we were at the same age. That's all well and good. But maturity doesn't always mean that we have to push our kids out into the world and expose them to everything.
I want to protect my son for as long as I can. He's only innocent for a short period of time. Why take any of that away?
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