Thursday, September 4, 2008

One of these things is not like the other.

For kids...





Not for kids...




I have this mistaken impression that because something is a cartoon, I think it must be made for children. This is obviously not the case when there are shows out there like The Simpsons, but somehow that hasn't changed my mindset. When an animated movie comes out in theaters, I think, 'Oh, that might be fun to take the kids to'. Well, I should probably be more careful as evidenced by what happened this week.
June found Antz on the shelf and I had forgotten my parents had given it to us. She recognized that she hadn't seen it, and I remembered that it was a cute movie (I think I saw it 10 years ago) so we put it on.
Hmph...it was not for kids. The jokes were aimed at adults, and there were several bad words in it. Lame. I let the kids finish it, but then I told them that we wouldn't be watching it again. "Why?!" June asked, because she had enjoyed the story. "Honey, there are some bad words in it that we shouldn't say, or hear for that matter." I didn't expound on which ones and she didn't ask.
A few days later we were arguing playfully like we often do. June will decide something and she sticks to her guns regardless of the truth. It is usually something small like me saying, "Miss Feik is spelled F-e-i-k."

"No, it is spelled with an A."
"I'm pretty sure she spells it with an E."
"She wrote it on the board and it was an A"
"Well I saw it on a paper she sent home and I remember it was an E."
"It was A."
"It's not." (I'm goading her now for fun)
"It is!"
"It's not."
"It is, dammit!" (oh, fun's over)

Maybe I should have mentioned which words we are NOT supposed to use. Poor June. I explained very gently that we shouldn't use that word and she was very sad about the whole thing. But how was she supposed to know? At least she is aware now that there are words we don't say.
She was running around the house saying "Easy Amigos" the other day and somewhere in the middle she stopped and asked, "Can I say that, is that okay?"
So, she has learned her lesson about certain words, and I have learned mine about animated movies. They are not all for kids. I know one movie I am taking to DI.

4 comments:

Jodi said...

Oooh- yeah Antz is definitely aimed towards adults. I was actually a little surprised by it awhile back. That's cute about the bad words. What a sweet girl to ask you if words are ok.

Wright Family said...

That's funny. Reminds of story when I didn't know a word was bad. I haven't gotten to that stage yet with my kids but I'm sure it will be soon.

¡Vieve! said...

I kinda think its funny when kids swear! Even though I know it isn't.

Rachel said...

Do you mean that word isn't appropriate? I guess I should stop yelling it whenever I get frustrated! Just kidding, but it is kinda funny that she used it in the right context!
To comment on a more recent post, Daisy is precious in her blessing photos!