Why do they market PG-13 movies to little kids? - Page 2

[meemee]

see i am all against this whole valentines day thing school has become. why? what if my dd didnt want to take part? would she be the pariah? (dd didnt have to but there is the social pressure). all of this is such meaningless junk. and oh gosh!!! sooooo much candy. why?

why cant we do something in a more meaningful way? its one thing to celebrate love. but all the kids are getting out of the 14th is CANDY!!!!! by the time school is even over the garbage is strewn with those cards.

we did take a part in this ourselves just coz i didnt have the time or energy to do something different. i would like to.

[Fuamami]

Originally Posted by meemee

see i am all against this whole valentines day thing school has become. why? what if my dd didnt want to take part? would she be the pariah? (dd didnt have to but there is the social pressure). all of this is such meaningless junk. and oh gosh!!! sooooo much candy. why?

why cant we do something in a more meaningful way? its one thing to celebrate love. but all the kids are getting out of the 14th is CANDY!!!!! by the time school is even over the garbage is strewn with those cards.

we did take a part in this ourselves just coz i didnt have the time or energy to do something different. i would like to.

Yes, I totally agree. My dd was thrilled by it, and made all of her own valentines a few weeks in advance. But that's just the kind of kid she is, she rarely goes to school without a card or a little homemade notebook or a picture for one of her friends. And, my MIL has been unloading all her old art supplies on us from when she taught elementary school.

I was really saddened by one little boy's valentines, which were just a scrap of paper with his name on them. He just moved here, started school in the middle of the week, and though I have no idea what his home situation really is, I was conjuring up all these images of totally destitute parents who couldn't come up with the money to buy a pack of valentines, or didn't have time, or were too out of it, or whatever.

Wouldn't it be nice if our school actually funded art classes, and the kids could all make their valentines there? Oh, a girl can dream!

[Needle in the Hay]

Originally Posted by Fuamami

I thought they were inappropriate because, for example, the Transformers valentine had some uber-seductive woman aiming a handgun at the recipient. I will fully admit I am a prude because I have watched very little TV for about 8 years now, and so when I do I am seriously shocked by the violence.

I can't really imagine having my son give a Valentine like that to another little kid--why would they even make one like that?

Even if he absolutely had to have the Transformers cards we would have looked for some solution, such as buy an extra box and not give out that particular card if the other designs were better. Or make our own with Transformer pictures we printed or something. If my son wanted to keep those cards for himself, fine, but I would be a little more thoughtful about what he gives to others.

I totally agree kids can have high interest in a movie or character without having seen it. I remember buying my son a Sonic leapster game because he really liked that character even though he hadn't yet played a Sonic game or seen any Sonic cartoons.

[VisionaryMom]

Originally Posted by MusicianDad

DD made her own valentines and DS helped, so everyone in her class got something with scribbles on it. They all thought it was awesome.

We made our own as well. They're a robot design we saw in a magazine, and they were really simple.

I don't know about your children's school, but we are allowed to put only "from J" on them - not who they're to. Somehow with that restriction (which I still find odd), making your own seems more personal than just writing your name on 25 un-addressed cards.

[Jessy1019]

I can't comment on the marketing, but my 4 and 7 year olds have seen all those movies, and my 4 year old especially LOVES the Spiderman and Transformers movies. Transformers is even starting to grow on my daughter, who was trying to hold off on liking it simply because her brother loves it. ;-) Regardless, they are both more than capable of following the storyline, talking about the characters, etc.

We don't censor what our children watch (the werewolf movie that's out is what my son wants to see next at the cinema, and we're planning to go one night soon), but I do think a lot of the kids know the characters from toys or cartoons and not so much from the movies, if that makes you feel any better.

[stik]

Originally Posted by Fuamami

I was really saddened by one little boy's valentines, which were just a scrap of paper with his name on them. He just moved here, started school in the middle of the week, and though I have no idea what his home situation really is, I was conjuring up all these images of totally destitute parents who couldn't come up with the money to buy a pack of valentines, or didn't have time, or were too out of it, or whatever.

Wouldn't it be nice if our school actually funded art classes, and the kids could all make their valentines there? Oh, a girl can dream!

If it makes you feel any better, my dd gave valentines exactly like that little boy's for a few years, and her recent efforts, while much more elaborate, probably look equally heart-breaking to a lot of parents in her class. We have the money, the time, and the will to buy valentines. Every year, we volunteer to help her pick some valentines, or make them, or whatever else she wants. She loves making valentines and she wants to do it herself, her way. She loves the valentines she makes, and historically, they have been well-received by her peers.

It would be nice if there were time and funding for kids to make their valentines in school. In the early elementary grades there are excellent curricular justifications for it.

[Geofizz]

Originally Posted by MusicianDad

You know, a lot of parents let their kids watch these movies because they have different children then you have, and while they maybe frightening/upsetting to your kids their own children are able to enjoy them and handle watching them. The rating isn't a "You're a horrble parent if you let your kids watch this movie and they aren't at least 13." It is a "Just a warning that there are things in here that you need to consider before letting a child under 13 watch."

Originally Posted by philomom

Thanks.. I was coming here to say something similar. No young child needs violent images in their head. Even if they understand its make believe.. I think it sticks. There's so much better stuff to fill your kid's minds up with.

Not everyone prioritizes things the same way I do. Others see entertainment where I see unnecessary images. These are, in fact, comic book characters. Sure, they're from recent (and as I read here, evidently violent and dark) movies, but these are classic characters from comic books, whose readership used to be dominated by children in the age range you all mention.

I really cannot comment on the movies that have been mentioned here, because I can't watch things like that. My own emotional makeup is to avoid all movies like this. DD is certainly related to me, yesterday crying and leaving the room because of the scary images she was watching -- a Nova program on butterfly migration. As a result, such movies aren't even on my family's radar.

As a result, these valentines were largely meaningless to my DD.

Another tidbit -- valentines are required in all classrooms at DD's K-5 school. I wonder what parents find appropriate for 5th graders?

I love hearing about schools that make rules about home made valentines only, or no candy, or other such restrictions. We don't go to such a school. We're just happy with the "no costumes with weapons or that accentuate a body feature of one particular gender" for Halloween.

[LynnS6]

Originally Posted by MusicianDad

You know, a lot of parents let their kids watch these movies because they have different children then you have, and while they maybe frightening/upsetting to your kids their own children are able to enjoy them and handle watching them. The rating isn't a "You're a horrble parent if you let your kids watch this movie and they aren't at least 13." It is a "Just a warning that there are things in here that you need to consider before letting a child under 13 watch."

Yes, which is why I like CommonsenseMedia.org - I know my kids are on the extreme side of being scared by things. It's a problem for books too, since ds' reading level and his ability to handle scary plots are considerably out of sync with each other.

But I have to say that letting preschool children watch movies with a lot of violence is something I would never let my child do, no matter their temperament. Nor will I ever allow our children at our house to play first person shooter games on the computer/gaming system. (I'm not so naive as to think they'll never be exposed to those elsewhere, but not in my house.) Graphic images of violence can affect a child's perception of the world. Heck, they can affect an adult's perception too. It's why I don't watch the nightly news.

Originally Posted by Fuamami

I was really saddened by one little boy's valentines, which were just a scrap of paper with his name on them. He just moved here, started school in the middle of the week, and though I have no idea what his home situation really is, I was conjuring up all these images of totally destitute parents who couldn't come up with the money to buy a pack of valentines, or didn't have time, or were too out of it, or whatever.

Or maybe he's just a kid who doesn't really care. Ds made his own valentines. Our 10 year old neighbor and I cut them out of white paper. Ds wrote on each of them "Dear ______, you're a great friend." and signed it. He colored about 1/4 of them red. The rest were simply white paper. No decorations, no nothing.

Originally Posted by Fuamami

Wouldn't it be nice if our school actually funded art classes, and the kids could all make their valentines there? Oh, a girl can dream!

Amen! Though to have time for art, we'd have to stop testing children every 30 seconds. Think of what they could learn then!

Originally Posted by Geofizz

My own emotional makeup is to avoid all movies like this. DD is certainly related to me, yesterday crying and leaving the room because of the scary images she was watching -- a Nova program on butterfly migration. As a result, such movies aren't even on my family's radar.

Us too -- just a recommendation: Don't do March of the Penguins any time soon. It's a deep, dark tragedy (according to dd). We were in mourning for several days over the momma penguin who got eaten by a leopard seal. And over the babies who died in the cold.

[Fuamami]

Originally Posted by stik

If it makes you feel any better, my dd gave valentines exactly like that little boy's for a few years, and her recent efforts, while much more elaborate, probably look equally heart-breaking to a lot of parents in her class.

Originally Posted by LynnS6

Or maybe he's just a kid who doesn't really care. Ds made his own valentines. Our 10 year old neighbor and I cut them out of white paper. Ds wrote on each of them "Dear ______, you're a great friend." and signed it. He colored about 1/4 of them red. The rest were simply white paper. No decorations, no nothing.

Thanks for the reassurances. I will assume that this is what happened with this little boy.

Originally Posted by LynnS6

Amen! Though to have time for art, we'd have to stop testing children every 30 seconds. Think of what they could learn then!

Yep, no way to quantitatively measure the quality of Valentines, I guess!