Did your parents/do you censor the media for your kids?

[Southpaw]

Well, I remember singing along to this song all the time as a kid. Parents well aware.

I wanna li-li-li-lick you from your head to your toes
And I wanna move from the bed down, to the down to the to the floor
And I wanna ah-ah, you make it so good I don't wanna leave
But I got to kn-kn-kn-know what's your fan-ta-sy

Soo uhhhh safe to say music wasn't much an issue either

Now, when we bought CDs, for a while we weren't allowed to get the explicit versions. But whatever was played on the radio, was okay.

The only thing that I remember being 100% off-limits was the movie The Exorcist. And to this day I have no desire to see it.

[Beanie]

Originally Posted by BostonBanker

Nope, I can't stand the sort of music they make videos for, for the most part. But back then, the freakiest thing in a video was Sinead O'Connor's head.

Well I just choked on my dark chocolate.


I still find it crazy they can swear on cable past 11pm LOL. The very first time I heard uncensored f-words coming out of my TV I was like "...they can do that??" It was 2AM on Comedy Central. BUT STILL. Hahaha.


My parents didn't really censor stuff but the funny thing is how much kids don't get. We watched Fresh Prince as a family and I watch it now and had NO recollection of all the sex jokes and references. Also Friends, we all watched that and I didn't really think about it as far as everybody sleeping with everybody else on the show LOL. I remember being at my grandma's one night watching Friends, and she came down the stairs and saw I was watching it and asked me if my parents let me watch this show. Of course, we all watch it together! I had no idea why they wouldn't let me watch it.
Some of these shows are quite a bit different now as an adult than when I was a kid, haha.

We used to have pizza & movie nights... get a pizza, rent a movie, and we'd all sit and watch it together. I saw lots of movies with language in them and oddly enough the fact that there was language in them wasn't something that stuck with me. Once again I think it's an adult view projected on a child's mind. I watch some movies now going "we watched this as kids??" haha. My parents didn't really do horror movies or anything... my dad would sometimes rent a violent movie (of course violent in the 90's versus violent now are two different things) and I remember being a bit disturbed by some of the stuff that happened in them, but it's stuff that still disturbs me to this day because I'm too empathetic to tolerate violence and gore as "entertainment." =P I don't think I was scarred by it or anything.


I don't remember having Big Talks with my parents about drugs and sex and stuff, and I was exposed to it often enough, and I'm not running around having sex with everybody and doing a bunch of drugs nor am I OMG SHELTERED about it. Then again in the 80's and 90's there were plenty of Very Special Episodes of TV shows, so I guess the TV shows did the Big Talks LOL. Do they even do Very Special Episodes anymore? I would guess not since ABC Family has a whole series about teenagers getting knocked up left and right...

[JacksonsMom]

Originally Posted by Beanie

Well I just choked on my dark chocolate.


I still find it crazy they can swear on cable past 11pm LOL. The very first time I heard uncensored f-words coming out of my TV I was like "...they can do that??" It was 2AM on Comedy Central. BUT STILL. Hahaha.


My parents didn't really censor stuff but the funny thing is how much kids don't get. We watched Fresh Prince as a family and I watch it now and had NO recollection of all the sex jokes and references. Also Friends, we all watched that and I didn't really think about it as far as everybody sleeping with everybody else on the show LOL. I remember being at my grandma's one night watching Friends, and she came down the stairs and saw I was watching it and asked me if my parents let me watch this show. Of course, we all watch it together! I had no idea why they wouldn't let me watch it.
Some of these shows are quite a bit different now as an adult than when I was a kid, haha.

We used to have pizza & movie nights... get a pizza, rent a movie, and we'd all sit and watch it together. I saw lots of movies with language in them and oddly enough the fact that there was language in them wasn't something that stuck with me. Once again I think it's an adult view projected on a child's mind. I watch some movies now going "we watched this as kids??" haha. My parents didn't really do horror movies or anything... my dad would sometimes rent a violent movie (of course violent in the 90's versus violent now are two different things) and I remember being a bit disturbed by some of the stuff that happened in them, but it's stuff that still disturbs me to this day because I'm too empathetic to tolerate violence and gore as "entertainment." =P I don't think I was scarred by it or anything.


I don't remember having Big Talks with my parents about drugs and sex and stuff, and I was exposed to it often enough, and I'm not running around having sex with everybody and doing a bunch of drugs nor am I OMG SHELTERED about it. Then again in the 80's and 90's there were plenty of Very Special Episodes of TV shows, so I guess the TV shows did the Big Talks LOL. Do they even do Very Special Episodes anymore? I would guess not since ABC Family has a whole series about teenagers getting knocked up left and right...

LOL, I know right. I do that too. "I watched this when I was x age?!?" LOL .... some of my favorite movies that I remember were Forrest Gump, The Truman Show, and Field of Dreams and I was definitely below the age of, like, 8. But it isn't until I watched them as an adult that I get certain things. Like, the scene in Forrest Gump where he's touching her boob and he totally orgasms or whatever he does, LOL... I remember watching it and just thinking he was excited or whatever, I don't even know. But I think it mostly goes over kids heads.

[milos_mommy]

The song you guys are referring to "you're making it hard" and "I wanna lick you from your head to your toes" is way, way, way more subtle than a lot of the stuff I hear, choose to listen to, and that they even put uncensored on the radio.

When I was a kid the worst song they played on the radio was "baby got back"...compared to what I hear on the radio now, that's pretty PG.

I remember being little (not that little, probably 9 or 10) and singing "Janie got stoned because she couldn't get boned" and my mom getting really angry...I had no idea what it meant, I thought someone just made it up because it rhymed or something.

[crazedACD]

Originally Posted by Xandra

Yeah I watched Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark? since I was really little, can't remember how young. We watched Steven King movies when we were 9-10 (bathrooms were scary scary places until we worked up the nerve to watch the second half of IT)... I definitely saw Jurassic Park when I was young, my dad bought it for me when I was in single digits... dinosaurs, why not right?? And I remember seeing the Ring in theatres when I was 11, I think it was rated 14A.

Originally Posted by ~Jessie~

I loved Are You Afraid of the Dark. I watched it every week.

Do any of you remember those Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books? The ones with the REALLY scary illustrations? Those were my favorite books when I was 7 or 8 years old.

http://tuneinrockon.wordpress.com/20...l-in-the-dark/

The illustrations were by far the scariest things about those books. 20 years later, this is STILL terrifying:

OMG yes. I read all the Goosebumps books and some others too. I probably still have that scary stories book.

I don't know, it was fine. If I was too freaked out by something I stopped watching or reading it (I remember turning off Pet Semetary because I couldn't deal with it, lol). I was very into horror when I was a kid.

My dad and I used to go to the video rental store (remember those? LOL) and pick out scary movies to watch, like werewolf and murder movies.

[milos_mommy]

I didn't watch many scary movies as a kid, but I would have nightmares/be unable to sleep just based on the creepy movie covers in blockbuster.

[Greenmagick]

Maybe I am just getting old, and I am not someone who likes censoring and as I stated earlier, I am open with my kids. We watch certain adult movies, listen to unedited music (erm, should I mention my daughters favorite song for awhile was coin operated boy ) etc. BUT, I do think some shows and commercials are pushing it too far. I know we have talked about it a bit before, but like the hardee's commercials - they are almost pornographic and VERY objectifying of women. Again, I am open about sex, I think sex is healthy and good and should be out in the open BUT, the objectification...it does affect children. Yes, parents need to talk to their children about this, I agree and do...however images like that STILL impact the child.

My DH has his major in advertising. He can not stand the whole idea of it. He talks to the children a lot about commercials and we have gotten lucky that so far, the little amount they see, they tend to get the ridiculousness of it. But the real reason it stuck for my daughter came down to chance and perfect timing lol. This was probably when she was about 4. We were at the store and she begged for some disney princess spaghetti o's. I thought what the heck, she can try them. She was super excited and talked about having them for lunch the whole day. Next morning upon waking, when is lunch? Lunch finally came...I made a bowl for both her and Cian. Sat them at the table and left the room to switch laundry over. I hear LIlah gushing about the noodle shapes, etc. Then silence. A couple minutes later she comes out. She says, yeah, I didnt like them. I walk into the kitchen, she had taken BOTH bowls, dumped them down the garbage disposal and rinsed them (which had never happened before and I dont think has since lololol). Later that night when Dan asked her how they were she looked at him and said "daddy, they tricked me! They put princesses on it so I would want it but it was crap" - he then explained thats how advertising works. It stuck lol

[misfitz]

Originally Posted by Greenmagick

I worry more about commercials than anything.

Commercials are awful! I don't have kids, but I'll be watching Discovery Channel or Animal Planet and am always shocked when they have Viagra commercials on. I can just imagine some poor parent hearing, "Mommy, what's erectile dysfunction?"

I was in college when the Ring came out and that movie STILL scared the crap out of me. For a year after, I had to cover my TV set in order to sleep LOL.

I was kind of a latchkey kid, so nothing was really censored for me - maybe it would have been if they'd known about it, LOL. I mostly didn't watch inappropriate stuff though, I don't think. I read the Fear St books, and "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" - that one was scarier I think.

Anyone remember the TV show "Unsolved Mysteries"? I was allowed to watch that in elementary school and it freaked me out pretty good.

[Laurelin]

Ok that picture is freaking me out.

[Dekka]

Welll...

When you watch shows like Spartacus,... I don't want my 12 year old watching along side of me lol.

But in general no, he can watch what he wants. We have some good (if a bit uncomfortable) conversations because of it.