I went to Quaker School from seventh grade on. If it wasn't for my Quaker School, and specifically one amazing teacher, it is quite possible I would not have graduated from high school and quite probable that I would not have gone on to college. I am not particularly religious - with a Jewish dad who doesn't believe in God and a mom who tells tales of scary Catholic school we celebrate Hanukkah, Passover and Easter (only because H is so cute looking for those eggs!). I do go to Quaker meeting every once in awhile and while I am not well versed in Quaker beliefs I do know and mostly buy in to their whole non-violence spheel. Yesterday I would have told you I am raising a son who will not have guns, will not play violent video games (or any video games, if I have anything to do with it), who will understand that violence is one person hurting another and that goes against what we "in this family" believe is right or good.
Now, let me descend from my high horse and confess that I took H to see Kung Foo Panda - his first movie ever. Damn you IMDB! I read the parent reviews and they mentioned that there is "some fighting" but went on to promise that there was more to the movie, and that the violence wasn't graphic and was, to quote them, "silly". I dragged my wonderful friend and her 2 2-year-olds with me (so sorry - am hanging my head in mommy shame..), forked out for tickets and popcorn, and settled down to watch.
All I have to say to those who said this was a "young kid friendly movie" is CHA! As if!!
It was 2 hours of people karate chopping each other. There was no blood, but there was lots of hitting, kicking, some sword play as well as flaming daggers. Swweeet. It was everything I want to keep H away from - loud, overwhelming, desensitizing - he loved it. THEN, we left the theater and while waiting in line to get an ice cream he started running back and forth in front of the counter going "hi-YA" and "chop" and flinging his arms around in the air. holey crap - that is MY kid doing that?! He loved it. The whole thing. The loud, the big, the shopping, the panda getting hit in the balls, (do pandas have balls? I guess they must...) couldn't get enough.
Yeah yeah yeah, I know I (probably) haven't scarred him for life, that lots of kids who have never had a toy gun (or been to Kung Foo Panda) still play with pretend guns, that I watched mov ies like Dumbo and Cinderella that have equally upsetting story lines and morals, blah blah blah. I still feel like with that movie I wittingly exposed my son to a lot of things that are scary, overwhelming, and (in my opinion) not so great about the world we live in.
On the other hand, it was 2 hours of air conditioned entertainment and all I had to do was sit there and repete "Panda is OK" over and over...
2 comments:
If it's any consolation, Annie and Camille have seen it. No karate chops afterward. I think it must be a boy thing because Tony couldn't stop practicing when he got home. :) Haven't seen it myself.
Karen
Hey, at least H picked the 'good' guy panda to emulate. My kids were tigers all afternoon. That's right, the dark scary, mean antagonist tiger. Lovely. But, my favorite part? Gee asked me - Why did the mean tiger come from inside of a turtle? Excellent question, small insignificant one, let Master ponder it.
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