Questionable Parenting (necropost)
13Yesterday on the radio they were talking about bad parenting decisions. One topic in particular was inappropriate movies their parents took them to as children. One of the DJ’s mentioned seeing Fatal Attraction at the show when she was between 8-10!! Seems like a fun topic…
As a child did your parents take you to the show to see a movie that may not have been age appropriate? What was it? Did it mold your little brain in one way or another?
For me, it wasn’t my parents it was an Uncle/Aunt. They took me to the drive-in when I was around seven to see Cheech and Chong, I think it was up in Smoke. I just remember thinking those guys were hilarious!
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My parents were pretty on the ball with checking what I watched, but watching Independence Day when I was 6 was pretty fun.
@Moose sadly my parents were pretty on top of EVERYTHING. My incident occured when they were out of town and trusted my Uncle with our wellbeing. I recall him getting in A LOT of trouble after we told mom and dad about this funny movie we saw!!
I recall going to Jurassic Park and coming out at about 11pm and seeing parents with kids about 5-6 heading in. Forget the lateness, that was pretty intense for kids that age!
@ybmuG My daughter LOVES dinosaurs. The more realistic the better. We showed her Jurassic Park the first time when she was 3. She loved it and didn’t have any nightmares.
We all watch it about once a month, which is the maximum frequency we allow family movies to be repeated. We haven’t shown her JP 2 or 3 yet, because they have a lot more on screen deaths.
@fibrs86 @ybmuG
We loved JP as kids, I think my dad took us to the $1 show like 15 times to see that movie. My youngest brother was maybe 7 or 8.
@ybmuG I went to see JP opening night at the midnight showing. The only seats left were on the front row. They had the sound cranked WAY up. There was a woman with a baby that couldn’t have been more than a year old in there. When the t Rex roared I jumped and covered my ears. That baby started screaming and wouldn’t stop the rest of the movie. And she wouldn’t leave either. She got some ugly glares that night.
My ex husband took our 8 year old son to see stormship troopers. And then got mad when he got scared and wanted to leave. My ex told him he was staying to watch the rest of the movie and to just go pick a different theater to go to. What an ahole
@fibrs86 @ybmuG
Very wise. One of the most traumatic events of my life was the week we spent at my sister-in-law’s at Christmas time, with Home Alone 1, 2 & 3 in constant rotation. Actually, “continuous” would probably be a more accurate word.
During a slumber events we managed to watch Psycho on the brand new UHF channel in the middle of the night.
Parents did not know.
We were about 2nd grade.
Scared the crap out of us.
/giphy psycho
@f00l We went to a drive-in to see “The Detective” with Frank Sinatra, my sister was 11, I was 9, and my little brother was 5.
Pretty sordid and somewhat graphic movie for kidsy.
We also saw “Dog Day Afternoon” and “The Longest Yard” [original version w/ Burt Reynolds] with the whole family.
@f00l Excellent Giphy.
@f00l @PhysAssist I watched Dog Day Afternoon on tv in the early '80’s. I still have confused feelings about Chris Sarandon (it’s a mixture of this movie and Fright Night that caused them).
@f00l @mossygreen I think I know just what you mean.
I took my kids to see Rocky Horror Picture Show when they were 14 and 12. My daughter later told me it was what gave her the courage to come out to me as bisexual. Questionable Parenting? Yes. Regret? No.
I was (supposedly) a grown-up when I saw Alien, but it haunted me for quite a while.
And the idiot friend I went to see with it parked behind the 1000+ seat theater. That meant we had to walk down a dark alley to get to his car, with the Alien lurking behind every dumpster and in every shadow.
@blaineg I was in college, and a few of us decided to walk from a keg party to a dollar theater to see it. It was at a small screen multiplex, but the only remaining seats were in the front row.
I was so close i had to turn my head to see the whole screen, which didn’t go so well with being drunk. So i was a bit dizzy and queasy and had a little trouble focusing.
And the movie terrified me. We then had to walk along deserted streets late at night to get home.
When I was 9 my mom took me to see Excalibur and when it was over we snuck into Stripes. Both movies were a little over my head, but I think I was imprinted more by Excalibur. At least, by the costumes. So good.
I’m still weirdly traumatized by seeing Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman at too early an age. It may only have been the first episode (I’m not sure). But I’m still freaked out.
@mossygreen The mirror-polished armor in that movie [Excalibur] was beautiful, but very impractical. The other costumes were also pretty amazing.
@PhysAssist I feel like all of John Boorman’s films are beautiful, but maybe I’ve only seen the beautiful ones? Even Zardoz, with all its crochet and hideous wigs and butterfly-sleeved wrap tops, has some indelible images.
I need to watch Excalibur again soon.
@mossygreen @PhysAssist
Zardoz has indelible images? Surely, you jest.
@mike808 @mossygreen @PhysAssist I was afraid someone would post THAT. Now I need to clean my brain again!!
@tinamarie1974 What, no love for Connery in thigh-high boots?
@macromeh I prefer to be the only one in my relationships that wear thigh high boots!
@tinamarie1974 Pictures or it never happened…
@mossygreen I was in my early 20s when I saw Excalibur, so I mostly remember Arthur’s conception, during which his father had only paused long enough to remove half his armor.
@craigthom @mossygreen I can still hear the sound of his chain mail armor clinking while doing the deed. I was way too young for that movie…
Not movies per se, but I swear my parents let us watch The Blob, Godzilla and Benny Hill all in one sitting, weekly! Such nightmares! My dad LOVED Jaws too… I vividly remember being afraid to get out of bed because sharks could come and eat me! My older brother is probably to blame for that misconception…
@mikibell
@duodec smh…
I was watching Halloween, Friday the 13th (original) and Alien at about 9 or 10 yrs old with my dad
@cardiganb oh my gosh! Any nightmares?
@tinamarie1974 not at all, rather I do believe it started my love of Horror films. Not that it was a stellar idea lol …oh except for It Clown nightmares 100 percent of the time!
@cardiganb
My grandpa died when I was five and I was one of the youngest and all the grandkids sat and watched nightmare on elm street series while the parents talked and drank (big polish family). I had major nightmare of Freddy clawing through my blankets for months after that.
Not our parents, but our one Grandma took me and my older brother to see Jaws when it first released. I must have been 7, maybe younger. And yeah, I wouldn’t go to sleep unless Mom tucked ALL the sheets in so tight that none of my arms or legs could snatched up by sharks at night. When she found out, she was a little peeved iirc.
Thx Granny!!
I went to only one movie as a kid with my parents, I was maybe 10 or 11: The Sound of Music. The big screen with color and the sound was amazing!
Otherwise, black & white TV with 3 wonderful channels to choose from with a ball of tin foil on the rabbit ears.
Wasn’t until I was a teenager I got to go to movies with friends.
@daveinwarsh scary movie if you know your WWII history!
@chienfou Yes. The Germans looking for them had some pretty intense moments for me back then.
I remember being very upset as a 6 year old when my father took my two older brothers to see Jaws, but I wasn’t allowed to go.
When I finally saw Jaws on TV a few years later, I realized it was the right choice.
One of my favorite memories of my grandfather was when he took me to see Blazing Saddles. I would’ve been about 5 when the movie was released - I don’t think I was that young though, so maybe it was a “return engagement”? I think I was probably between 8 and 10.
Too young to get most of the jokes but old enough to appreciate the silliness. The best part was my Yiddish-speaking grandfather’s reaction to this scene:
Never saw him laugh so hard in my life (and he was a funny, fun-loving guy) - he was in tears.
My father made up for sparing me the nightmares from seeing Jaws, and then some, a few years later.
I believe I was ~8, my parents were freshly separated and my dad’s divorcee-pad had HBO. I was spending the weekend with him and he invited my aunt, uncle and adult cousins over for a watch-party.
The movie was The Exorcist.
It legitimately scarred me for life.
I can say that I consider myself lucky that seeing that movie stands as one of the most traumatic experiences of my childhood, but just because there are worse traumas for a child than seeing the most terrifying movie ever, doesn’t mean it didn’t have a profound effect on me.
Was afraid of the dark and slept with a nightlight until I was 13.
I still, 40-some years later, have the occasional image from that movie show up in a nightmare.
Of course, my dad taking me to R-rated movies was one of the (few) perks of my parents’ separation/divorce.
When I was probably around 9 or 10, he took me to see a movie called, “Can I Do It 'Til I Need Glasses”.
It was just a collection of acted out versions of old, dirty jokes; it was Robin Williams’ big screen debut and, having just read the reviews, it’s no surprise I found it hilarious as a pre-adolescent boy, as that seems to be the consensus as to the level of humor and quality of production involved.
Strangely enough, the two gags I remember from that movie also involved politically incorrect depictions of Native Americans; one was “Chief Bowels no move” (couldn’t find the clip, but you can look up the joke) and the other was this classic:
I don’t remember the bits with Robin Williams.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My friend’s older brother took us to see Bo Derek in “10”. Totally didn’t get it being only 10 years old at the time. The next underage R-rated film I remember seeing was
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
/giphy Rocky Horror
Oh, Rocky!
@mike808 I saw RHPS in high school (on vhs) and fell head over heels for it. I had been a HUGE Tim Curry fan from watching (and recording off the TV to watch it over and over) Legend, but when I saw RHPS my whole world changed and I realized that being weird is ok.
This thread has revealed a thing I knew, but I suppose I had not truly realized to what degree… it’s how with regards to access to content (and in many other ways) I had basically ZERO supervision. Or could it have possibly been worse than even that… was the filth fomented???
I read every single post above and, before age 10, even the very worst of what’s been mentioned would be near the bottom of the inappropriateness scale compared to the garbage I had seen. I’m not one bit proud of it. Ashamed rather. Yet, more than that, amazed and thankful at how God can bring you out of the worst darkness unscathed (or perhaps scarred, but stronger).
@jester747 indeed.
@jester747 Agree heartily and join with you in thankfulness. Someone very close to me was exposed to a lot of bad stuff throughout childhood. Really bad stuff, regularly. Lots of damage was done. I am so grateful for His protection and grace, for it could have been worse.
At the same time we lament the basic parenting that could have prevented it all.
It’s not about rules, helicoptering, permissiveness, or what have you. Sure there’s lots of times where things won’t go south and, after using discernment, sometimes things are safe. And sure mistakes will happen. But please, don’t willingly give a child potentially dangerous/damaging substances and just hope for the best. That’s just ‘questionable’ at best.
I’m just glad my folks weren’t ‘helicopter parents’ when I was younger. I always had unfettered access to the Internet from an early age, and it helped me learn a massive amount about not only life, but myself as well. (Furries and inflatables!!)
Many children will quickly become rebellious if their parents are overly restrictive.
@PooltoyWolf That’s exactly what happened to me. My mom was not a mother, she was a smother. Partly from the need to control everyone and everything, partly from anxiety that everything bad would happen. Whatever the issue, I rebelled so hard in high school that I nearly derailed my entire life. She still loves to throw in my face “how bad of a teenager” I was. I just roll my eyes because now I know (with lots of therapy) I was trying the natural “pulling away” at that age and she just kept her hands around my throat (figuratively) so I had to pull away as hard as I could to fulfill that stage of development. Lesson to smothers everywhere.
@Gypsigirl213 Sorry to hear you had to go through that, but I’m glad you turned out okay.
@PooltoyWolf Aw thanks!
@PooltoyWolf
Just how young are you?
I had access to TV (UHF and VHF) and books from an early age.
My first computer, first modem, and first foray onto the internet would’ve been around '92 or '93, when I was 22 or 23.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@DennisG2014 I’m 31; born September '88. I started using the Internet shortly after it became available to the masses.
@DennisG2014 @PooltoyWolf I first had internet in 92 or 93 as well. these young pups make me feel old
@DennisG2014 @PooltoyWolf @tinamarie1974 I had a BITNET (no, not crypto currency) account in the late '80’s. Thought it was so cool I could send a message to someone at a university in Oregon and he sent me back some data.
@DennisG2014 @PooltoyWolf @ybmuG I can remember being in college as an IS major and my professor telling us about this really cool, new programming language he learned about over spring break called Java. We giggled cuz it sounded like coffee
@DennisG2014 @tinamarie1974 I can still remember the dial-up sounds and AOL logon, and being irritated when someone got on the phone. LOL!
@DennisG2014 @PooltoyWolf omg…YES I would have to try to upload code to the university. Sometimes it would take all night and yes, any one phone call and I would have to start over. So painful.
@DennisG2014 @PooltoyWolf @tinamarie1974 the server in grad school was so hobbled, I started running a data conversion program, then did the math and realized it was going to take until the next day, so I zipped it, emailed it to myself, drove home, downloaded it on a 14,400 modem, ran a conversion on my computer, sent it back and drove back to school. Took about 4 hours total and I felt pretty good about that. It was a time of different expectations.
@DennisG2014 @PooltoyWolf @ybmuG and kids today think they have it so hard! Lol
@DennisG2014 @tinamarie1974 It continued to happen with DSL until we managed to get working line filters on every phone jack! We have had cable broadband for years now, and that all seems so long ago…
@DennisG2014 @PooltoyWolf @tinamarie1974 no kidding! “My online game is laggy! Why don’t we have faster internet?”
@PooltoyWolf @tinamarie1974
It’s hard to remember that that was almost 30 years ago.
@DennisG2014 @PooltoyWolf now I do really feel old phuf.
/giphy old and sassy
@DennisG2014 @PooltoyWolf @tinamarie1974 @ybmuG
Yeah now they don’t even have to walk through chest deep snow, uphill both ways, to use the internet. Or punch cards for the computer. Sheesh what is this world coming to?
.
@DennisG2014 @Kidsandliz @PooltoyWolf @tinamarie1974 @ybmuG
Hey, I wrote so much code in Fortran on punch cards that I could read them by sight for typos.
GET OFF MAH LAWN!
Also found a critical bug in the Fortran 77 compiler we were using on a DEC TOPS-20 system that stopped the course mid-semester while they fixed it.
Ah, the joys of booting a PDP-8 using the front panel toggles to enter in the assembly instruction bytecode, flipping the clock toggle for each one to process.
@DennisG2014 @Kidsandliz @mike808 @tinamarie1974 @ybmuG I’m not sure whether to be satisfied or appalled that I know what all of that means.
@DennisG2014 @Kidsandliz @mike808 @PooltoyWolf @ybmuG maybe it just means you have an old soul
@DennisG2014 @Kidsandliz @mike808 @tinamarie1974 @ybmuG I’m into all kinds of old stuff! My clothes iron was made in 1946
@DennisG2014 @Kidsandliz @PooltoyWolf @tinamarie1974 @ybmuG
Cool! My wife was made in the 50s!
@DennisG2014 @PooltoyWolf @tinamarie1974 @ybmuG
For large quantities of data, FedEx still has better bandwidth than most internet connections. Several online backup companies offer “ship a disk” services.
@DennisG2014 @Kidsandliz @PooltoyWolf @tinamarie1974 @ybmuG
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2012-04-27
@blaineg
@blaineg @DennisG2014 @PooltoyWolf @tinamarie1974 This was 1997 and I was a poor grad student, so wasn’t an option. And it was health information which, while not as protected as today, was not something I would have wanted out of my control (not that we actually have any control anyway).
@DennisG2014 @Kidsandliz @mike808 @PooltoyWolf @tinamarie1974 @ybmuG
Sounds like you’ve got me beat in “old fart” wars, but I did have to enter boot code with switches to get a TI computer to boot from an 8" floppy.
I got Internet access at work in 1986, several years before Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web. The first web browser I used was Mosaic, so that would put it at 1993.
After years of text-only Internet, it was beyond cool to be able to pull up live images from Antarctica, and other places!
@ybmuG But you effectively did the “FedEx thing” by driving home to download it, and driving the data back to school.
@DennisG2014 @PooltoyWolf there’s some youngsters on here for sure! I was 22 in ‘92 as well! I remember when my dad got an Apple II plus… cool stuff
@blaineg @ybmuG but he was controlling chain of custody himself.
@moonhat @PooltoyWolf In all fairness to PTW, 30 something is not exactly a youngster.
I just find it very hard to get used to the fact that people who were born around the time I graduated high school are now in their 30’s.
Then again, I also find it hard to believe that people born in the '00s aren’t still in diapers.
I’ve been thinking lately of the line from Pink Floyd’s Time - “And then one day you find ten years have got behind you” - and thinking, make that 30 years.
To quote another fine song -
Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping…
@DennisG2014 @moonhat Hey, I’ll take being called young for as long as I possibly can! I’m also of the type who still mentally considers 1970 to have been 30 years ago, 1980 20 years ago, 1990 10 years ago, and so on. I gripe when I hear gamers refer to the Nintendo GameCube as ‘retro’, and modern CRT TV sets as ‘vintage’.
@DennisG2014 @moonhat @PooltoyWolf I’m still waiting to get around to Super Smash Bros. I think of it as a new series.
It turned 20 this year.
@DennisG2014 @Limewater @moonhat If you’re not wanting to play every game chronologically, I recommend starting with Melee on the GameCube. It’s the best of the earlier games, and birthed the competitive Smash Bros. scene. It’s still a very playable game, though the mechanics have changed some since then.
@DennisG2014 @moonhat @PooltoyWolf I have the original and Melee. Which would be easier for young children?
I might jump right to Melee because I think it’s the one where they added the Ice Climbers. I was an Ice Climber for Halloween, but it was in tribute to the original game, not Smash Bros.
@DennisG2014 @Limewater @moonhat The original Smash on the N64 is a simpler game than Melee, but the controls are much better in Melee, and the Control Sticks on the N64 controllers can’t take much punishment. I’d almost say to skip straight to Brawl to start the kids off, since it’s probably cheaper than Melee these days, and it’s no longer playable online. (This is if you have a Wii console.)
@DennisG2014 @PooltoyWolf @tinamarie1974 My parents got a dedicated landline for the internet after so much “get off the phone” frustration
My Dad loves going to the movies but Mom doesn’t. I remember being taken to the James Bond movies with my older sister starting around age 10 (late 70s). He’d cover my eyes and make my sister cover hers during any romance scenes, and I was too young to really follow half the plots (this guy talks to people, shoots people, talks to more people, saves the day but I’m not sure how, or half the time what the threat was (the missile one was obvious)), but we had fun, got candy and popcorn, so I went with it.
@mollama oh… and those females’ names…
Pussy Galore, Plenty O’Toole, Holly Goodhead…
As a child coming up in the early 60’s we didn’t do ‘movies’ at the cinema, and stuff on TV was pretty benign, so meh.
I do remember my BIL taking his young nephews to see Jumanji (the original) during a Thanksgiving visit and them being scared as shit…
@chienfou I watched Jumanji by myself on Thanksgiving several years ago and for some reason it made me sob uncontrollably. I don’t remember why, and I don’t really want to watch it again to find out. Damn Robin Williams, being all actorly and affecting.
@mossygreen If you have a chance see the remake. It is much lighter and there are some hilarious scenes with Jack Black and Dwayne Johnson.
@mossygreen
@mossygreen ooops wrong remake… this is the sequel to this:
@chienfou @mossygreen and you get to look at Jack Black and The Rock!!
@chienfou @mossygreen @tinamarie1974
So is Jack Black just The Rock in a dad bod?
Discuss.
@chienfou @mike808 @mossygreen nope! Jack Black is funny and confidant. That makes him just as sexy as The Rock. I put JB in the same category as say Kevin James.
@mike808 @mossygreen @tinamarie1974 JB was amazing in ENVY !!
@chienfou @mossygreen the first remake was so good. My husband and I took our kids to see the second one with the Rock et al and we were very disappointed. Watch the first one, skip the second one… it was awful and definitely not young-kid friendly like the first one.
My parents left me to my own devices for the most part, so by the time I was ten or so, I’ve seen (on TV) movies like The Thing, Leviathan, Event Horizon, Poltergeist, Taxi Driver, lots of mobster films, war films, etc.
Anyways, I turned out fine…I think?
/me picks teeth with tactical knife
Totally watched Demi Moore in Striptease and Indecent Proposal as a kid; I think they were on VHS. Every now and then, when assessing someone’s financial situation, I wonder how many couples would accept $1M (or orders of magnitude less) for a night with their wife…
Thinking back, I do remember taking our kids (7 and 4 ? at the time) to see Return to Oz. One of the local rock stations did it as a midnight movie and you got in free if you came in PJs. We put the kids down for bed early, then woke them to take them to the show which they found very exciting. We all dressed in PJs or night shirts and brought stuffed animals to hold. The movie was VERY dark and creepy… like the OZ books really are. Don’t think it freaked out the kids too much, since they knew the story already…
@chienfou Damn. I forgot about that movie. I was 7 yo when my mom took me to see that. The room with the heads—disturbing. Yes, the whole movie is dark and creepy; excellent nightmare fuel. I can’t imagine what my mom was thinking when it started with Dorthy getting electro shock therapy, but we stayed through the whole movie.
@Gypsigirl213 wait… what… are you my daughter?
/giphy shocked
@chienfou you don’t sound like a deadbeat dad, so I’d say not likely!
@Gypsigirl213 thanks for the vote of confidence… I think!
As an aside, that was/is one seriously f’d up movie for a kid – the more I think about it. Sometimes I wonder how come DHR didn’t come out to the house for a visit.
@chienfou I’m pretty sure the books don’t include electro-shock therapy.
Disney made three very dark adult films art that time, but they quit after people took their kids and then complained. The other two were Something Wicked This Way Comes and Watcher in the Woods (which i still haven’t seen).
@craigthom Yeah, I think you are right.
Pretty cool books tho. Always loved how Frank picked the name of the place (Oz)… it could have been Wizard of An…
@chienfou Hey a jury of your actual peers likely wouldn’t have convicted you.
@chienfou we loved that movie in our house. We owned it and watched it relatively often
@chienfou Been so long since I’ve seen that that I’d forgotten a lot of that. Also wondering, how did Dorothy get younger than the original?
I grew up in a one-theater, one-screen town, so there weren’t many opportunities to see movies.
I wasn’t scarred by them, but I remember my father taking me to see a Bond movie and an Elvis movie. I don’t remember which ones. I’m retrospect I think he was just getting both of us out of the house as my mother dealt with my new younger brothers.
Later, in addition to the one or two features the theater showed for a week, the theater had a kiddie matinee double feature early on Saturdays, maybe at 11:00, that only showed once. My mother would drop my brother and I off with a dollar each (which covered admission, a Coke, and popcorn or a candy bar), and we’d stand in line to get in. She’d pick us up later.
There were a lot of movies on TV, though, a 13" black and white until i was seven, when we got a giant 19" color set.
Two TV movies did give me nightmares: the Tingler and A Little Shop of Horrors. i was too young to get that the latter was a comedy. William Castle and Roger Corman were responsible.
I spent my early years where there was no TV and limited movies (so, pretty sheltered). One of my earliest movie memories (I was maybe 3 or 4) was watching The Shaggy Dog (the original) at the cinema. As benign as the movie was, something about the transformation scene from human to dog triggered me and haunted my nightmares for several years after.
Mom & Grandma took the whole family to a movie that terrified me for years: Snow White.
Bambi was pretty scary too.
Stephen King has said that Walt Disney is the master of terror.
@blaineg oh I still cannot watch Bambi! Where the red fern grows is equally terrible.
@blaineg @tinamarie1974 and old yeller
@blaineg @chienfou oh yeah. I forgot that one!!
@blaineg @chienfou @tinamarie1974 Heck, Finding Nemo starts with him being maimed while his mother and siblings are murdered.
@blaineg @chienfou @craigthom Some cartoons are dark AF. How about Sleeping Beauty, your step mother tries to kill you because you are too pretty!
@blaineg @tinamarie1974 I read Where the Red Fern Grows to my oldest daughter a couple of years ago, and she didn’t shed a single tear.
That is the only time I have honestly wondered if there is something wrong with my child.
@chienfou @craigthom @tinamarie1974 Not a cartoon, but I recently watched the remake of Pete’s Dragon, and they killed his parents almost in the first minute of the movie.
My reaction was: Wow, Disney really hates parents.
@blaineg @chienfou @craigthom @tinamarie1974 Yeah some of those kids movies were scary. I remember hiding behind the couch with my fingers in my ears (as an early grade schooler) at the scary parts in some kids/family TV shows.
It wasn’t parent that scarred my for life with an inappropriate movie, it was my older, male cousin. We were living with him, my aunt, and my younger female cousin, the latter who was sent to bed when the sun went down. My older male cousin and I got to go bed a little later so we watched TV while the adults did something else elsewhere (I wonder where they were or what they were doing). Anyhow, my cousin would make me (literally tackle me and sit on top of me) watch Jaws on HBO EVERY SINGLE NIGHT for weeks. It scared me and instilled such a deep fear in me that I got freaked out even being in an above ground pool alone (at a different aunt’s house). There was some damage on the far end of the pool’s floor that I was convinced would open up and release a killer shark. I still can’t go into any body of water where I can’t see my feet.
@Gypsigirl213 well THAT sux. It’s amazing how cruel kids can (presumably innocently) be.
When I was in Cub Scouts, the scout leader was driving some of us home and his kid decided we would watch the beginning of Stephen King’s Firestarter on a portable VHS player.
Older than y’all…
At a birthday party of a friend (8 or 9 years, I forget), we all went to see The Cowboys, which had just hit theaters.
Definitely not the kind of movie the parents were expecting. There was crying. Not me, though. I was shocked, but otherwise enjoyed it.
As long as there was a kid’s movie at the movie theater about 3/4 of a mile from us my parents let us use our own money to go see a movie. We’d walk up there and see what we wanted. Some of which was inappropriate. No longer remember which movies though other than having the opinion I wasted my money on some as I didn’t understand them.
I came from a big polish family and had polish neighbors. Looking back my parents probably drank more than others and we lived on a lake so hosted lots of party’s and were left to our own a lot. We left in the morning and didn’t return until diner and then left until dark. We really didn’t have much supervision. We did a lot of bad stuff as kids. I turned out fine, I’m responsible. I do remember going to the drive in with my parents for a double feature when I was five and seeing Batman and arachnophobia. I’ve never liked spiders since. The only movies I can remember my mom getting mad about me watching were boyz n the hood and indecent proposal when I was 10. But I also watched tons of horror movies and was told to deal with it bc I watched them.
@star2236
My first thought was “furniture or shoe”?
/giphy shrug
Oh yeah, I just remembered my mom also took me to see Pennies From Heaven when I was 9, and I’m STILL freaked out.
On the other hand, I am strong proselytizer for this scene:
/youtube christopher walken pennies from heaven let’s misbehave
Not inappropriate, but i did go to see Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and ended up crying at the stunts. At one point Kevin is tossing bricks off a building and hitting one of the bad guys in the face. I was bawling because i didn’t understand why everyone was laugjing because “that would really hurt.”
I have never liked slapstick comedy. I don’t find it funny.
Also, I just went through and read this entire thread and didn’t realize it was a necropost until the 2nd to last post
@mbersiam The content is timeless. Timeless!
Thanks for sharing such an important thing.
As a kid we’d walk to the movie theatre (about a mile away) without our parents, once we even walked 4 miles to get to one and then took the bus home when we realized we were being passed by busses a lot. We saw several that likely would have been PG13 or R rated now, including a couple I had no clue what was going on in them they were so over my head (and inappropriate I am sure - one we sat through twice as we had no clue what was going on). As we used our own money to pay for the tickets we didn’t go all that often.