Movies
/I find it interesting that, as a secondary school teacher/principal, I was often asked questions on how to raise teenagers, even though I did not have any yet. Now that my kids are entering that stage of life, the ‘how-to’ questions from others have ceased. In fact, I am more likely to have the ‘how to’ questions now…
The latest issue is (what else?) movies. Before the team travels to Anchorage, the manger of my child’s baseball team called a parent meeting. The coach said that PG-13 would be the appropriate level of movies to watch, but concerned parents should e-mail. Of course, I had to e-mail. The issue is what to say? More specifically, how can I be a winsome witness for Jesus?
Here is what I said:
Hey, ----,
Thanks for all that you are doing for the boys. Here’s to a great week of baseball!
As to movies – I confess I am an odd one. I would let my children watch Lord of the Rings (R), yet not watch the Bernstein Bears (G), when they were in 1st grade. Films that honor valor, courage, family & God are films we watch, no matter the rating; films that don’t are films we avoid as a family. I really do not want to ‘deprogram’ my kids about respect for authority, casual swearing, etc. if better options are available.
As a rule of thumb, I think PG movies are more likely to make the grade than PG-13. Therefore, I am asking that the movie ‘guide’ be PG for the trip. We will gladly send up some movies for the teams if that is helpful.
What would you have said/done? What standards do you use for movies? (I don’t use the R, PG ratings at all - I use http://www.pluggedin.com/ alot)
(BTW – the coach was and is very gracious and easy to work with. We have been asked to choose the movies for the trip – Facing the Giants, anyone?)
KS
(P.S. – Grace just told me that she does not like Bambi – she thinks that PETA wrote the screenplay….lol)