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Ok, so many may consider me to be outside my lane since I have no kids but I was at the movie John Wick 2 last night and was dumbfounded. Dumbfounded because this movie was pretty violent (about 20 or more head shots with blood splattering everywhere) and I saw parents with kids. Not far from me was a couple with a 5 year old and afterwards saw a 10 year old (guessing) with his father. The mother had her 5 year old on her lap and was laughing with each head shot. I seriously couldn't believe it. Is it just me and my old fashioned ways or is something really wrong with society?
I had to google it, but I see the movie is rated R. We loosely stick to ratings here, so I would never take a 5 year old to an R rated movie. Depending on the nature of the movie, my kids started seeing certain PG-13 movies around age 10.
I remember a friend of mine taking her small child to a PG-13 movie, then expressing surprise when it was too violent for a 4 year old. Duh. There are movie ratings for a reason. They may not fit exactly with everyone's definition of age appropriateness, but they are a good guideline.
I think it depends on the maturity level of your kid. I just watched John Wick last week and while it was a lot of shooting it's all fake. My 9 year old is well aware that movies are just that movies. We have gotten into the Harry Potter movies and so far we've watched 1-4. I've had friends tell me that they waited longer to have their ____ aged child watch this particular one. I also have a friend that her 6 year old has seen them all. It's all about knowing your child and what they can handle and what they can't.
Two incidents come to mind about a month ago I was at a comedy show lots of cussing, sexual jokes, graphic language. The tickets said not appropriate for under 18 but in the audience was a mom with her 10-12 year old son. He got quite the sexual education that night.
The second incident was at a concert, a couple was there with their toddler and baby. Smoking, drugs and alcohol everywhere not to mention the noise level but the couple acted like nothing was going on. At one point a fight broke out and security had to break it up. Joints being passed around, when I went to the restroom I saw a couple having sex. The concert lasted until 2am by that time the toddler was sound asleep on the filthy concrete floor.
Some activities are not child appropriate and parents should use better judgment.
Some ten year old might be ok, I haven't seen it either so it depends on the maturity level of that kid, but definitely not a 5 year old! Some parents are just idiots and instead of getting a sitter they bring the kid with the an adult aged movie. And they wonder why kids are growing up violent! Sad!
I wouldn't take my 7yo to it but he is allowed to watch most pg13 movies because they don't upset him and he knows it's fake. But those are still limited to super hero/comic book/Star Wars type movies and he has to go with one of us. I can't imagine taking a 5yo to a R movie but I guess every parent is different.
I think a big part of the youth violence we have today is that so many kids have become completely desensitized to gore and graphic violence, blood, etc. Little Jimmy might "know" that it is not real and not have nightmares, but little Jimmy also might later not have any problem, or nightmares, with seeing a person in real life, have his head blown off. That's a problem in my view. It's why I never allowed my son to see age-inappropriate movies. And I think it's a sorry commentary of the parents that do.
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