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Mom, Can We See that Movie?

By Marcia Ballard June 12, 2014
Having grown up in the Disney era, I love great kids movies and the experience of going to the theatre, but I wish moviemakers made more “G” rated movies. We have to deal with what we have and sometimes, it’s not so good.  When do you say, “yes”?

Every parent has to decide what kinds of movies they want their kids to watch. Your family is unique and you have to estimate what behaviors and words your child will be exposed to, and then live with the consequences.

But there's one more side to it. If your kids hear curse words or sexually charged words, they WILL repeat them. If they think something they saw was outrageous, funny or likely to gain them attention, they WILL mimic the acts. Later, if they are in any kind of a child care or school setting, they may be reprimanded for that behavior. If you can prevent the exposure to undesirable  behaviors, you lessen the chance of repeating and internalizing the language.

Since no parent can preview every movie their child may see, reviews from a parent's perspective can help. There are several websites out there that offer reviews of today’s films, such as kidsinmind.com and screenit.com, which is fee based. My favorite is pluggedin.com, the movie section. They do a good job of listing movie reviews for parents. It is a Christian based review that reflects Christian values, but you can benefit from the general information, regardless of your religious convictions. Pluggedin.com categorizes their review into Positive Elements, Spiritual Content, Sexual Content, Violent Content, Crude or Profane Language, Drug and Alcohol Content, Other Negative Elements and a conclusion. If I’m in a hurry, sometimes I’ll just go to the language section to see what I’m dealing with. This site also offers spoiler warnings as they are very sensitive regarding themes that can have a detrimental influence. The reviews reflect a depth of experience and often offer comparisons between films to give the reader more information. Also, the text is not too long and is easy to read.

Every parent has guidelines for saying “no” to a film and these sites will give you the information you need to make those decisions.