What do you think of this parents decision?

Question

I spoke a Mom over the weekend who told me she took her 5 and 6 year old to see the rated R horror movie 28 Weeks Later. Which I had seen aswell, I was dumbfounded. This movie is violent, gory and frightening even for adults as it is intended for adult viewers. Do you think it was appropriate for this person to take their small children to see this movie? Can a 5 and 6 year old truly understand that its just a movie or do you think they'll be mortified by what they see and traumatized? She claims they know its just a movie but...even still..

Answer 1

This mom has cottage cheese where she should have brains and obviously has never heard of a baby-sitter. If this is representative of the kind of judgement she uses in raising kids, then her kids are very much to be pitied. You are welcome to print my response to your question and present it to this lady, with a suggestion that she get some help from a mental health professional or else give up her kids for adoption to someone who will care more about their welfare than about seeing a movie.

Answer 2

I believe she showed a complete lack of judgement in that. I haven't seen 28 Weeks Later but I have seen 28 Days Later. That is stuff that should not be seen by children.

A thought that just occured to me is, what if movie theaters started incoporating a play room or baby-sitting service in the theaters. That way parents could drop off kids when going to see a movie. But, then again, it would probably be outrageously overpriced, kind of like their movie tickets and food and beverage products.

Bringing up this question brings back a memory though. When I was in elementary school my friend invited me over to her house to watch a horror movie that her parent's rented. She really wanted to watch it, but didn't want to watch it alone. In retrospect, let's just say, I think I was way to young when I watched that movie. To this day, I cannot watch the Halloween series. I probably will at some point in my life, but I just can't bring myself to do it now.

Needless to say, most horror movies in general need to be restricted to pre-teens and teenagers at the very least, simply because of the gory content nowadays.

Answer 3

Whether or not the kids will come out of that movie actually believing that some virus will take over the planet and make everyone eat each other to me is not the real point. The POINT is that those young, impressionable kids will have those gruesome images in their heads for ever more. I think it's a travesty to have to deal with stuff like that in your head - especially when you're still trying to figure out how to interpret the world, deciding how you fit into it and deciding how everything interacts with you.

I think this mother acted irresponsibly. She either really wanted to see the movie and couldn't find a sitter, or she's told herself that her children are mature and intelligent beyond their years and can handle things that most other children can't, making her a very hip parent.

Even if her kids are freaking geniuses, she's taking something away from them by subjecting them to something that will definitely shorten the life of their imaginations.

My position is that parents have an honor code that they need to live by - and that code simply states: "I will do everything within my power to protect my children from the harms of this world".

And in my opinion, killing their innocense is far worse than an arm-break from a fall from a swing.

Answer 4

I have not seen the movie, but I believe that the mom used very poor judgment. I remember, years ago, feeling mortified that a friend of mine took her second grade daughter to see "The Passion of the Christ."
I don't care what the message is or what the parent believes the child "understands." There are just some things little kids should not see.

Answer 5

I think it's completely inappropriate to take a child to an R rated movie, if only for the sake of fellow theater goers. When I saw Borat a woman brought her 4 grandsons with her. The oldest was about 11. And when I saw Pan's Labyrinth a family had their 5 year old. It's a subtitled movie! I think that's kids can "know" it's a movie, but it would still inspire fears. Think of how irrational children's minds are and how thoughts can snowball, especially at the age where they believe in Boogeymen and that ghosts are going to get them and OMG what if I die!

Answer 6

Personally, I think it's incredibly inappropriate. There's a reason those movies are given the ratings they have been given. I can see a parent accompanying an older teenager, but children of that age? Heck no! I'm with you on this one.

Answer 7

My answer would be a diffent NO. I believe a child that age can't comprehend it and wheither the parent said they can or not, the nightmares alone would probably keep the child awake, maybe next time she should find a babysitter.

Answer 8

Some kids can be influenced by what they see on a screen. so yes it was incredibly stupid, irresponsible, and completely stupid on her part as being a parent. But at the same time she was probably just trying to scare her kids to death to get them to behave. and if that were the case that was still wrong.