Captions in the comments. Blather, rinse, repeat.

Stolen from the Horse Power Business Blog

There’s an entire segment of parents who will not be happy with what I’m going to write next.  But it’s the truth, and the truth can hurt, I know.  So, just have some band-aids and an ice-pack at the ready. 

You are the parent who lets their child watch PG-13 and R-rated movies.

You know who you are.

And no, I’m not talking about allowing your 16 year old (even though technically that goes against the rating system, but I will admit that there are some mature 16’s) to rent 300.

I’m talking about those that see no problem with their four year old watching movies such as Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, or Spider-man, or countless others.

I don’t know if in the back of their minds they are thinking, oh, Spider-man, that’s from a comic book.  So how bad can it be?  Why, there are even backpacks and shirts and pajamas with Spider-man all over them. And Star Wars? Didn’t that have some fuzzy Ewoks or something? Our precious Little Preston here will have no problems.  He’s so mature for his age, he can handle it.

I disagree.

Even though the action/violence in Spider-man is for the most part highly stylized, it is still violence.  Same thing with Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. When homeboy does his half-pike into the lava, that’s a pretty intense visual to expect a young, impressionable mind to handle. And in both movies, there is punching and kicking and people just basically looking to kick someone else’s ass.

Not the message to give your four year old, I’m so sorry to say.

I don’t care how much they beg you.  I don’t care if that is what their older brother/sister wants to watch and you are too tired to argue.   Those violent images will stay vividly in their minds, and for a longer time than you would think.  You are doing them no favors.  In other words, get a backbone!

So, parents who do either do not bother to look at the MPAA rating or simply do not care, you are a Lazy Parent Award^TM Winner! Step right up here so that we can all publicly mock you.

I won’t congratulate you because you will already have your hands full with your overly-aggressive child who will purposely hit someone on the playground as they “act out” the scenario.   You’ve got lots of meetings with the principal in your future.  Enjoy!