Not for Children

There is this long standing debate as to whether or not video games, T.V. and movies affect the development of young children, it does, it doesn't, it does, it doesn't. Back and forth, up and down parent's, child care providers, scientists and so on can't seem to make up there minds whether it does or doesn't. Well, my stand point on the debate is, if it affects 23yr old then it most certainly affect a 3 yr old or a 10 yr.

Joel and I spent the past 3 days in Edmonton and during this time we went and saw the new "super hero" movie The Watchmen. This was possibly the worst movie I have seen in a very long time. The rating of this movie was higher then the average super hero movie, but we were optimistic being that every other movie like this has been pretty good. We should have payed attention to the rating. It was violent, gruesome, disturbing, not to mention the sex scene that made me feel uncomfortable, and I'm married. I was disappointed and so were the 6 people who left in the middle of it. But more then my disappointment of the movie I was disappointed with the parents who brought there daughter who, if I was guessing, I would say was probably 4. I covered my eyes for lengthy portions of the movie because of the gruesome blood and violence. At one point Dogs are killed by one of the Watchmen because a man(who was then also killed) had chopped up a little girl (probably 4 ) and fed it to his dogs. They don't show the girl being chopped up but they show were he did it, the blood and the knives and then they show the dogs fighting over the girls leg. It's one thing for Joel and I to decide to go to a movie rated 18A, but it's a completely different story when a 4 yr old has to go because her parents want to, if you can't find someone to take care of her while you're at the movies, then you don't go. What the heck were they thinking, and what the heck is the movie theater thinking allowing this. I'm sorry but obviously parent's don't always know what the best thing for their children is and if they don't have the common sense to realize that young minds are shaped by a lot of what they see and hear then they're living in denial, and I'm not taking about the river . It's no wonder kids are becoming increasingly violent etc. It makes my heart hurt because I'm afraid that there are some kids who don't stand a chance because they're being increasingly exposed to movies, not limited to, but like the Watchmen.