As a conscientious parent, it is very difficult navigating our grown up culture. There are far too many ways for my kids to grow up too quickly. When it comes to visual entertainment, it's easy to forget how huge an impact it can have on kids.
Duane and I love movies. Before we had children, we would go to the movies 3-4 times per month. We threw Oscar parties with full on props like the Sixth Sense kid's tent complete with a flashlight and creepy fourth grader. Ok, I'm joking about the fourth grader, but if we'd known a fourth grader at the time, we probably would have rented him out for the night!
Needless to say, once we had kids going to the movies abruptly ground to a halt. Because we try to be very careful about what our kids see on screen, video watching is even challenging. We often joke that the moon, stars and planets have to align for both kids to be asleep early enough on a night when Duane and I are still awake and have no work to do.
Kids-in-Mind is a terrific website that really helps us know what might be appropriate for our kids and what might not. It gives a rating of 1-10 in three categories: Sex/Nudity, Violence/Gore, and Profanity. The reviews also list occurrences of substance abuse and suggest relevant issues to discuss with your kids. We have become quite familiar with the ratings and what we are willing to tolerate. (Just so you know, we don't usually go higher than a 2.3.2)
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