Self and the small offspring (hmm…that might be a good band name) are going to watch one of the Herbie movies tonight. Family movie night. The small pillaging Huns don’t watch a lot of movies and television; at least, they don’t watch on the same gargantuan statistical level that most American kids do. Thus (and forsooth), a family movie night is a special thing for them. Popcorn, movie, wide-eyed awe, and then yawning off to bed.
Anyway, I enjoy the Herbie movies. Despite my decrepit age. Hollywood doesn’t make movies like them anymore. Herbie, The Computer Who Wore Tennis Shoes, Flubber, That Darned Cat, The Apple-Dumpling Gang. All that sort of thing. You never see nary a similar one emerge from the toxic cloud of Los Angeles nowadays. Why is that? I imagine there’d be quite an audience for them. Movies that families with young kids can all watch together without needing to cover the kids’ eyes and ears every sixty seconds.
Yeah, there are the Pixar movies, but those are few and far between.
I can prophecy some of the sneering comments to my naive monologue.
“Kids are more mature these days.” That translates to: kids are more screwed up these days.
“Entertainment should reflect life as it is. We don’t want to shield our kids, do we?” Oh, so you’re saying kids should watch shows about Syrian massacres and the sex-trade industry and crack addiction, just because that’s the way life is? Heck yeah, I want to shield my kids. I want to let them be kids and not have to fret and worry about the state of the world. That job (fretting, etc) is for adults.
Whatever. We’re watching Herbie tonight.
I’m with you on the “heck yeah, I want to shield my kids”. Syrian massacres and crack addiction are “life realities”, but so are sunsets and families who love each other and good food grown on farms, and as the latter are far more common than the former, besides being health-producing instead of health-destroying, they should be given correspondingly greater screen time. And throwing in a sentient VW beetle doesn’t hurt, either.
Yeah, the whole expose your kids school of thought is weird and lazy. Laziness seems to be the prime motivator, as far as I can tell. It’s hard work to shield the little plants and give them the right nutrients and soil. Tons of work.