Alan and appropriate media

[lesliepear]

Last night we were copying Family Guy on DVD for my SIL who is a big fan. I’ve not watched it much and Mark never had. So after the copy finished, Mark put it on to see how it came out. I was in the Alan’s bedroom sorting clothes and he called out something like it says it’s not for under 18. He was surprised at the language and adult references in it – but Alan happened to be watching it! Alan seemed to like the scene where they were throwing up a lot (I guess that’s 3 year old humor). Hopefully he won’t be permanently messed up by seeing a bit of it. Most of his TV watching that we’ve let him see has been Nick/Noggin, Cartoon Network and PBS (maybe some Disney channel). He’s seen very little adult non-cartoon TV on our watch (can't account for daycare time, especially when he was in an in home one -> they had the BET rap videos on once). (I once watched a CSI with him as baby – the episode on “furries”, because I wanted to see it – that’s the longest stretch of anything grownup I can recall.) I’ve even avoided the news as much as possible – except for the blizzard coverage last year (I figured how bad would it be to see people in the snow!)

We have finally discovered some non-kid music Alan likes. Mark likes to watch concert DVD’s. Most of them Alan will comment with “Turn it off” – he doesn’t like loud rock type music yet. (He did like the Moody Blues + an orchestra). I did notice the other day that he liked Norah Jones’s appearance on Sesame Street when she sun her song that had been tweaked to be about the letter Y. So we got a Norah Jones concert DVD and he liked that. I figure the more music Alan’s exposed to, the more he’ll like it. I do listen to whatever I want on the radio - which is a mix of pop, rock, disco, and oldies. (Although one day, I changed the classic rock station when they played “Highway to H*ll”!)

Comments

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I've never been one to tell anyone with a child how to raise him or her, and I'm not about to do that in this case. :-) Just sharing that I've always thought it interesting that my parents, as conservative as they are, never censored any type of media from me at any age that I can recall (and we've talked about it since). I don't think I turned out messed up (although that may be a matter of opinion :-)), so I think it's more important how the parent(s) treat the media and other aspects of parenting than the specific content.

Oh man!

[bghsmith.livejournal.com]

The Fox Sunday line-up after 8:00 is not for kids! I found it funny that one time some talking head said that they couldn't believe that Fox thought their Sunday line-up was family friendly.

Here's the thing, before Family Guy and American Dad there are warnings about the inappropriateness of the shows for younger viewers. But this guy kept ranting about Fox saying that the Sunday night line-up was all family shows.

I just wanted to tap him on the shoulder and say "You DID see the warnings before those shows, right?" Because you KNOW he didn't. He just assumed cartoon = Family Friendly and went off, on national television, when it turned out these weren't.

Re: Oh man!

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

I think my husband is the same way -> cartoon = ok for kids. Maybe because we grew up in the 60's with more "violent" cartoons than there are now. When we put on Wacky Races, Alan gets much more hyper than he does watching Nickelodeon's current cartoons.

A lot of cartoons have over the kid's head jokes, but not as adult as Family Guy.

Re: Oh man!

[bghsmith.livejournal.com]

A lot of cartoons have over the kid's head jokes, but not as adult as Family Guy.

LOL, even Disney! You might have to keep an eye on the hubby if he tries to buy some Japanese Anime. I've heard many o' tale of parents buying anime thinking 'cartoon = for kids' and being very unpleasantly surprised. It ain't all Pokemon!

Re: Oh man!

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

True. Basically the only anime we watch is Avatar on Nickelodeon. They never use the word, but one look at the style and plot and you can tell.

[yeoww.livejournal.com]

IMO Alan won't be affected by what he saw. In reality, the older kids get the less influence we as parents have over their TV viewing - they're not with us 24/7 and other people may not have the same opinions as we do. I found out my son had been watching South Park (or whatever that one kind of raunchy cartoon is called) with his dad for months - I never let either of my kids even watch The Simpsons up until fairly recently! And they both know that the language in that cartoon is inappropriate. So, Alan will be okay. You guys are the ones that instill the values, not the TV.

[butterflymama3.livejournal.com]

W try to limit the TV that the kids watch too. I don't lilke some of the shows that are on the cartoon network b/c they are very violent. Hannah and Peter both LOVE to watch cooking shows. Since both Jeff and I love to cook it doesnt' surprise me.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

Someone I knew on the internet used to think the Food Channel was the safest thing for her 2 little girls to watch. No sex and no violence (unless you count chopping food!)

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

I've still not seen Family Guy, but everyone I know seems to like it.

[eloren.livejournal.com]

I love Family Guy, but my children will have to get a lot older before they can watch it with me.

Hypocritcally, I will often be playing my favorite alternative rock CD's as I drive the little people to/from daycare. I'm a bad mommy!

Both of the little people will dance to most anything. Though I found it quite funny when Ryan would watch American Idol with us and ask us to tell certain of the performers to be quiet. He was not a Elliot or Paris fan!