Because I have no clue what I'm doing as a parent -- and I mean that sincerely -- I am susceptible to taking parenting advice from New York Times movie writers and anybody else who tells me what I want to hear. Dangerous? Sure, but I figure, if a guy from the Times is wrecking his kids, can't I?
Today's questionable advice, which I believe has led to the opening of a tightly sealed floodgate for me: screw movie ratings, take your kid to grown-up movies. OK, I will!
He writes:
"... while I am happy (or at least willing) to take my children to the
latest animated or tweener-star-driven “family” movies — with their
singing chipmunks and chirpy Loch Ness Monsters — we gravitate more and
more toward age- inappropriate fare, exploring the grown-up realms of
PG-13 and even, sometimes, R."
His daughter is in the third grade and his son is in the sixth and they've seen it all. Or a lot of it, he bravely discloses. You know what? Good for him (actually, good for them, the kids, the family.) His son loved the international intrigue of Charlie Wilson's War and thought Sweeney Todd was just great. He doesn't think The Kite Runner, after all, a story about a close friendship, should be adults-only.
"... children, more than critics, are receptive to anything that doesn’t bore them. Mine were enchanted by “Persepolis,”
for instance, which is after all the story of a rebellious young girl
contending with unjust authority. It’s not so different from “The Golden Compass”
(which they also liked), except that instead of taking place in a
computer-generated fantasy world full of armored bears it is set in the
real country of Iran, which is rendered in beautifully drawn ink-washed
two-dimensional animation. “Persepolis” is also in French, but don’t
let that put you off. If your children can read just-right books,
surely they can read subtitles too."
One of the big trade-offs with having kids for me was cutting way down on movie-going. It's expensive when you have to budget for a babysitter, and you have to do a little more planning than in the olden days, when I could just show up and see whatever, whenever. But one thing I have been looking forward to is when the older girl gets old enough to come with me -- to movies I want to see. Hey, I guess she already is! A guy in the New York Times said so! (Though I think I'll put There Will Be Blood in my Netflix queue, just to be safe.)
What about you? When are your kids going to be old enough to see your movies?
Photo: www.ageowns.com
