R Rated Movies?
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| Wed, 03-08-2006 - 11:50am |
Do you, or did you, allow your younger teen (13-14) to watch R rated movies? If so, at what age did you feel they were appropriate? Did you make that decision on just specific movies -- i.e., those that had R ratings because of language or an adult theme as opposed to sexual content?
14yo DD claims she is the only person she knows that is not allowed to watch R movies. It's not that she hasn't seen any, ever, it's that I don't know how ready she is for some of them. If the movie is rated R for language or due to an adult theme, chances are I'll let her watch it. (Most kids hear language that's just as bad at school, so hearing it in a movie is not such a shocker and she is quite aware of the more serious issues around the world today.)
I'm a more conservative with movies that are especially violent, and VERY cautious with movies that are sexually explicit. Not long ago, DD finished a book and told me she had to skip several pages near the end because she 'didn't need to read 4 pages about how the main character lost her virginity'. That indicated to me that she probably wouldn't be comfortable with a movie that contained sexually explicit scenes, either.
Just wondered if I'm a bit too conservative here.
Thanks,
Jules

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I think you have to judge your daughter's readiness and maturity to deal with R rated films. I allow my daughter to watch films with more mature content if I think the material is something she can comprehend and understand. I avoid sexually explicit films because, frankly, they make ME uncomfortable and I'm 42!! So I don't really care for her to see them and I know she doesn't care for them herself. We also avoid overly violent films, or slasher horror genre flicks, again because my daughter really can't handle them.
But there are alot of films that have more cautious ratings than maybe they need to and others that aren't rated as they should be. We recently saw Harry Potter and GOF and here that was rated PG-13. On the other hand I have a DVD of one of my fave teen flicks, Sixteen Candles, and that film only got a PG despite some brief nudity and quite alot of frankness regarding young teens having sex!!! So you gotta know your stuff when it comes to ratings and films.
In my case, I am very in tune with popular culture, music, film and TV shows and I know what my daughter can handle and what she can't. I don't presume to think I can protect her from anything necessarily because access in this world of internet and cable and DVD's and so on is so open that its better that she understand these things than pretend they don't exist. But how I handle them is to actually view alot of it myself. We also have alot of great dialogue and discussions on subject matter when it gets into more mature areas.
Make informed decisions for yourself and don't rely on any third party somewhere to decide for you what your daughter can or cannot handle....
Woo hoo! Happy birthday to Justin! Does this birthday mean that a driver's license is just around the corner? Do you have anything special planned?
Julie
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