Ever wonder what these kids might be watching at home?
For years, my mom had the delusion that anything on TV before 10pm was all ages—even on cable. When my nephew was nine, he and my sister were visting. I was upstairs doing homework, and about 8:30, my mom hollered for me to come downstairs. Brad* was struggling and whining on the couch while my sister held an afghan over his head. (No, they weren’t rebirthing him.) The movie on TV was Something Wild. If you haven’t seen it or don’t remember, in the first half hour, give or take, Jeff Daniels skips out on his lunch tab, then Melanie Griffith takes him away in her car, shows a lot of leg, robs a liquor store (shoplifting, not holding up the cashier, but still), and finally takes him to a motel room where they do the things people do in motel rooms in the middle of the day. It was during the motel scene that they put the afghan over his head.
Now, I understand perfectly that he was too young to see something like that.
But.
Even in those days (1987), TV listings had the ratings for movies, and made relevant comments like “Nudity” “Adult situations” and “Violence”. We had a good comprehensive cable guide…but it didn’t occur to them to consult it before they put the movie on! Ratings and warnings do no good if adults don’t look at them! They could have avoided an unpleasant situation if they had just recorded the film to watch after he’d gone to bed.
As it was, I ushered him downstairs to play video games, while agreeing with him that it was unfair—not that they wouldn’t let him see the rest of the movie, but that they’d let him start watching it without making sure it was appropriate, and then booted him out.
And a few years later when he was 12 or 13, Brad and a friend of his were indoors while everyone else was outside eating barbecue. Me: “Where’s Brad?”
Sis: “Oh, he and Friend are probably inside watching porn and raiding the liquor cabinet. Ha ha ha.”