The boys have been attending summer camp at their school. Since it's a Christian school and the camp is held at the Baptist church/school, we weren't too concerned about content. They go swimming every Monday, on a field trip ever Tuesday (today was the City Museum--lucky boys!!), to a movie every Wednesday, have stations (cooking, arts and crafts, etc.) on Thursday, and go bowling on Fridays. The boys love it and they are definitely sleeping well. :)
But we've run into a small problem with the movies.
It started the first day of camp (a Tuesday) when they came home and said they had watched The Tooth Fairy. Not only is it rated PG, but the grand total of what they got out of it was "the kid got mad and smashed his guitar!"
Not really life lessons we want our kids to be learning.
So I'm thinking it's a fluke...and then they watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (PG) and Alvin and the Chipmunks (PG). They are slated to watch Where the Wild Things Are (PG) today and I finally put my foot down. I don't want my kids watching that, and for more reasons than just the rating. I talked to the director of the program who said "well those are just the movies they show so that's what we go see." Really? Because I'm thinking the church would not be so happy that you're taking kids to see movies with cuss words in them (d*** and hell for the movie today...ones later on this summer are worse), not to mention the content, especially since about half the kids in the program are 7 years old and under.
So I had the fun job of telling the boys that they would not be going to the movie with all of their friends. Instead, they would be sitting outside the movie with the camp director. So now they think they have done something wrong or are in trouble. :(
As it worked out, Mark is going to take the boys to work with him this morning and drop them back off at summer camp at lunchtime. We're still looking into our options for next week...
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
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8 comments:
I can't believe they are taking the kids to those movies! I completely agree with you about not letting them see Where the Wild Things Are (I haven't seen the others). That movie does not have a good message on top of the cuss words. I hope you come up with some options. If we still lived there, I'd offer my help.
I can't believe they show those...doesn't PG stand for "parental guidance"???? The sad part is, that most parents probably don't care...but someday your boys will understand where you were coming from, and be thankful that their mom took a stand. We have watched Alvin and the Chipmunks and Where the Wild Things Are (weird, don't recommend) with our little boy, but we were right there to intervene if needed (parental guideance!) :) Alvin was fine! Maybe you can start a family movie night to replace the movie lost at camp??
Oh man, I am so sorry you are in this position. It just stinks! I have heard Where the Wild Things are is actually a bit scary. Good for you for taking a stand. Stick to your guns you are doing the right thing, even though it feels yucky!
Aley has not assertained summer employement....She is at Kyris at 3 on Wed....does it work out that she could swing by and take the boys to a park instead?
Thanks for the encouragement guys! I just feel bad that the boys miss out (although they had a blast yesterday). Next week is VBS so they won't have a movie, and I think after that I'm going to pick them up and take them home for a movie during their camp movie time. We'll see if I can make that work. :) (Oh, and thanks for the offer M but it's in the morning--9am. :))
I think you might really enjoy Cloudy with Meatballs - it is about an inventor boy and how he pursues his dream, along the way a relationship develops with the geeky weather girl scientist. It also has the message of too much of a good thing can turn out very bad. You might want to watch it with the kids so you can talk about points with them.
Maybe you could screen the movies at home first?
UGH! How frustrating. So glad you're able to come up with some alternatives so the boys don't feel like they've done anything wrong. You're not a crummy mommy...you're a great parent who sticks with what you believe in. Keep it up! :)
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