“You won’t let your kids watch what?”

I am so beyond picky on what my children are and are not allowed to watch. I know at times it may not seem like it, I know some people say I let my children watch whatever they want, but really I don’t. For starters we do NOT watch almost anything on Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network. All they are allowed to watch are just a few shows on Nick Jr. We do not allow them to watch shows where characters regularly refer to each other as “dumb,” “stupid,” and especially not “retarded.” It can not show the main character repeatedly doing unintelligent things (i.e. beating themselves, acting as if they have no common sense, running around acting as if they have no brain…). We do not let them watch shows where they use soft/replacement swearing often. The characters can not always act in mean, ugly, hateful ways to each other without some form of consequence. That’s a huge one we’re against. All these requirements may come across as us being over protective of our children, and even people at our church have accused me of being silly about it. But this is just how we are. They are allowed to watch Saturday morning cartoons like Spiderman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and things like that, which we’re told goes against all the above. HOWEVER, 9 times out of 10 John or I are also in with them and should they say or do something we don’t approve we can explain it. Plus, while many might not notice it, most of those types of shows do have some sort of lesson you learn, just not in the obvious PBS sort of way. Speaking of PBS, those kid shows are about all the boys do watch, and they love them. There’re shows Zach enjoy that come on later during the day and shows Ryan likes all day. Though I have a slight beef with PBS too. (lol) We have had to cut two of their shows out of our programming because they pushed on political views John and I don’t agree with. Such as when a certain early morning show did a thing on vaccines and explained that “Mommies and Daddies who love their children get them vaccinated, especially for H1N1.” I am not against vaccinations, I am against new untested ones on my children especially when that particular sickness is already in season. Getting vaccinated then is pointless. Another show got banned when they pushed on many many political views we are against, too many to name all.

But we do let our boys watch all sorts of action/adventure/fantasy movies rated up to PG-13 as long as they are not too scary, have no nudity, and no sex. They know what cuss words are and why they can’t say them. They no behavior they should not do. Lastly, they know the difference between what is real and what isn’t. The reason we are more relaxed on this is that the people that they watch in movies like that, they aren’t children. They are older teenagers to adults and the boys know that adults have different rules than children.

So, yeah many people think we’re silly, but you know what, they’re are our children. We make their rules, not everyone else.