All these years, since FG was born, I’ve attempted to protect her from obscene language, TV, movies, etc. I’ve had no problem “requesting” someone stop swearing if we were in the near vicinity. The worst incident was on an early morning train from Munich to Weiden during Oktoberfest and FG (age 5) & I were seated next to 5-6 soldiers coming back from an all-nighter of festivities. Seemed every sentence started with F***. I politely asked them to control their language, to which they truly made an attempt but it was so second nature that one of the guys finally said “Why don’t we just sleep since we can’t control what we say.” That made me chuckle.
In the last year, I’ve given up “protecting” her from foul language and now I attempt to explain why people use that type of language and why she’s not allowed to say those words.
FG is also not allowed to watch PG-13 movies yet. She doesn’t ask to watch them either, she’s very happy with the feel-good “G” or “PG” movies. Imagine my surprise when, during introductions, several of my 4th grade (9-10 year olds) religious education class students named movies like “Ghost Rider” as their favorite movie. I haven’t seen the movie but the previews looked disturbing to me. And then my neighbor shocked me even more when she said her 5 year old has seen all the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies. WOW ~ I had trouble with some of the scenes in the Rings series. Remember the scary spider ~ creepy.
Since FG is inching toward those PG -13 movies, I was thrilled to see this on a blog called Books on the Brain which I recently started reading. Commonsensemedia.org seems like a great resource for parents who aren’t sure if their child can handle a certain movie
Displaced Beachbums 
Nicole: I haven’t seen “Old School.” Should I add it to my Netflix list?
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This makes me think of the movie “Old School” where Vince Vaughn is constantly telling everyone, “Ear muffs! Ear muffs!” to keep his kids from hearing all of the vulgar words. Funny.
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Hey Patti, Thanks for linking my blog entry! Very cool.
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You know, we fall into the same situation. L. does get to watch PG-13 movies, but only if they’ve been pre-screened by us. A little language I can handle, sex scenes are where I draw the line. We’ve had a hard time with people giving him PS2 games as gifts and then we have to take them away from him for graphic violence. We’ve recently instituted a new rule where if something that was a gift gets revoked we will replace it with the game/movie of his choice that is appropriate for his age. He seems to work well with that one.
Thanks for the link! It should make my job easier!
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