10 June 2012
Gold Star Parenting
The Lad was home sick this week: a day off school. I stayed with him, lit the fire, setup the movie theatre and introduced him to one of the most awesome SF films ever: Aliens. Funnily enough, this flick (supported ably by hot chocolate and popcorn) saw him feeling much better by the end of the day. Needless to say SWMBO had a differing opinion...
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Awesome - look forward to sharing it with my ones. But maybe not when they're still two...
ReplyDeleteI got in trouble for him aged 11!
Delete11!!! He's practically a grown-up, it's your duty to introduce him to the good stuff out there.
DeleteI think my brother was 12 or 13 when I bought him a copy of it for his birthday. He'd obviously not been able to see it at the cinema, so I felt sorry for him :)
DeleteI did consult my parents first - they left it as my call (having not seen it themselves).
I think my children were around the 11 mark when they first saw it :)
Fantastic post – I can see the same opinions being aired in our house too!
ReplyDeleteI could possibly see SWMBO point of view, but in this case the end clearly justified the means and let us be honest, it is still one of the best sci-fi shoot ‘em ups ever!
ReplyDeleteBuild their taste for sci fi early, my 16 yo daughter now loves all things sci fi and military, saw Prometheus with her on the week end, she loved it.
ReplyDeleteGreat work there dad! Nothing better than Hicks saying "Game over man!" to liven up a sick moment. Was it the regular or the extended?
ReplyDeleteIndeed - its now become a regular saying between us! Particularly when playing Blood Bowl :-)
DeleteGood call, for being a quarter of a century old Aliens holds its own very well.
ReplyDeleteI vividly remember my parents taking me to see Alien at age 10. I was more scared reading the novelization than I was watching the movie. (Did Alan Dean Foster write every adaptation back then? It seemed like it...)
ReplyDeleteI must shelter my kids more than my folks did, because I don't think I would show this to my 11 year old... my 13 year old? No problem.
It completely depends on the kid - I've got 13 yr old Scouts that I wouldn't show it to! There are other SF action movies, like Starship Troopers, I haven't shown him because of the added gore content
DeleteFunny that. I did let Saul watch ST after he watched a kids programme on SFX that featured how they did all the gory effects including one of the kid presenters sticking a pen into the prosthetic head that had had the brain sucked out! After that I couldn't see the point in not. Kids are quite good at realising that it is fake gore in SF movies...
DeleteInteresting call... I'm pretty cool with my son seeing stuff when he's way younger than the rating. He's watched LOTR since being about 5, and oddly was only scared by Gollum, not the 'wraiths and Shelob as I expected... He's now 8, going on 9 in July, and most war and battle related violence I am cool with, though drew the line at Saving Private Ryan... and have to cover his eyes whenever any 'fruity' bits are shown.
ReplyDeleteI am yet to decide when to let him see any horror stuff, and to me Aliens falls into that category... but I know he's keen and is currently 'working towards them' watching his Goosebumps videos... ;-)
I totally agree that Horror is very different to war/violence. Then again I think Aliens is more an SF Action movie with some suspense, wheras (to me) Alien itself is an SF Horror.
Delete"He's now 8, going on 9 in July, and most war and battle related violence ... and have to cover his eyes whenever any 'fruity' bits are shown. "
DeleteNo criticism of parenting intended, but I always find amusing the idea that it's OK for kids to see war and violence but not 'fruity' bits. Mind you, I know adults who are much the same.
We just told ours about the birds and the bees before they started asking questions. But that's what happens when both parents are biology/zoology graduates :)
(I think my daughter was one of the few seven year olds in her class who knew that flowers don't look the way they do because they were made for people to find them pretty, but because it helps them have sex :) )
We were careful with horror stuff, though.
Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteYou know, silly me, here I was reading your post getting confused about drinking hot chocolate and lighting a fire in June when it's 85 outside... then quickly realizing it's winter where you're at. Duh, LOL
Jason