Wednesday, August 4, 2010

You let our kids watch that?!

Why, yes I do!

T-rex came home for the weekend and noticed the kids were watching some movie made in the 80s about a unicorn, it’s called “The Last Unicorn” if you really want to look it up. Anyway it has a wizard (which I am not too giddy about) some unicorns and other things, the wizard turns the unicorn into a naked girl (You don’t see anything) and then some other stuff happens, I don’t think I have ever actually seen the whole thing in order. We got it from my best friend, she loved it as a kid, and that was good enough for me. Okay I did check to make sure it wasn’t rated R first! And that it wasn’t going to be anything too bad. It’s not. At least I don’t think it is bad for a few 5 year old girls.

But, T-rex nearly flipped out! I guess there is a part where a tree turns into an old woman, and the wizard boy gets stuck in her, um, chest. The “woman” is still a tree. So the, um, chest is still wood. Oh gosh that might be bad!

Anyway it’s a dumb cartoon, and the kids like it. It reminded me of the old cartoons I would watch with my dad. Now I can already see him turning red. Sorry Dad!!! We would watch bugs bunny and stuff all the time. I would sit there and laugh at the right times, my dad on the other hand would laugh at the wrong times. I didn’t really understand this as a kid. When I got older and watched some of the cartoons we would watch together I got it. They add a lot of grownup humor to those things! I think they did it just so the grownups could stomach them. Now the cartoons are so boring! It is all little puffy pink things playing nice and talking about “going green” or “being nice.” So bad for kids I think. Whatever happened to the good old days? The days when the roadrunner got away, speedy shot something, and the cat got the tar beaten out of him for eating the bird.

People must of gotten all worried about a horse turning into a girl, no duh she didn’t have clothes on she was a horse two seconds ago! The kids don’t even notice it, it’s not wrong in their world. Like I said you didn’t see anything, the cartoon people didn’t make a big deal out of it. It was just something added for the poor grownups that are forced to watch the same thing a million times. Our dirty minds must get a kick out of it.

Now in T-rex’s defense he will not read any Little Red Riding Hood book that does not have the wolf being hacked to death by the woodsman. For that he earns a point in my parent handbook. Mostly cause that’s how I grew up with the story. OHH and our preschool taught the kids the song “the wheels on the bus.” You know the part where the mom tells the baby to shh shh shh. . . well now it’s different. It goes “the daddy on the bus says ‘I love you’, ‘I love you’. NOW COME ON! Maybe I am just not with it, but I don’t think everything needs to be “babied” down.

What got me the most about T-rex not really liking the movie is the fact that because of him our kids have seen stuff they should not have. I hate to say my children have seen more than their fair share of criminals in action including, a heat camera video of a criminal killing himself. I am happy they are still too young to really understand, and it’s not like T-rex says “Hey kids come watch what dumb people do!” (Yet anyway) They have just climbed on him when he is doing homework or something. So whatever, I am sure that stuff like that is going to happen in a house where a cop lives. For the most part they are protected from that stuff. But part of me is happy they are getting some of it, after all everything else in their world is so fluffy and pink.




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2 comments:

Ann T. said...

Dear Yellow,
Oh, ugh, my comment got lost an then my internet connection went too! So I will try to re-create--

I so agree with you about cartoons, I love Bugs an Road Runner and they are full of conflict.

But they share something similar to the old fairy tales--I wrote something about this a few months ago, only Hansel and Gretel. The old fairy tales lasted because they were true. They taught kids that the world would Hurt You unless you were clever and fast. If you saved yourself, you could live happily ever after. But the goblins and troublemakers were still around, you know?

I think that's something that actually helps children learn about real life--and keeps them from the wolf when they're out and about. It teaches them also to be active, to fight monsters, and to use their brains.

So I agree with you wholeheartedly.

Ann T.

Yellow said...

Ann~
I would love to read what you wrote, and add the link to this posting. Could you please send me a link to it? email ammointhedryer@live.com


I think it goes beyond just teaching kids about real life. Although that is a very good point and I agree! With the stories now that are all fluff we forget to teach our kids what is right and wrong, what it means to work hard, what it means to TRULY listen to your parents as in Little Red Ridding hood. To not take candy from strangers as in Hansel and Gretel. It's sad that we now don't teach our kids anything but "Everyone is equal" (which they are NOT, but that is a soapbox for another day) and "Play nice." We are not doing them any favors by doing this.

I think the old fairy tales lasted because they mattered. They taught you something. A lesson was learned and enjoyed. Stranger Danger has nothing on getting eaten by a wolf! An yeah its a kids story so there is a hero. . Much like there are cops now who can help you if you need it.

I also don't take apples from old ladies :)

What was your favorite story as a kid? My mom would read us the three billy goats gruff. I liked it because I was one of the girls, and it shows that it pays to be smarter than the trolls, something so true for our Internet times now!