To shelter children?
Somehow the subject of impending fatherhood just keeps popping up. I have a couple of friends that (even as I write) are facing the inevitable adjustments of parenthood. One specific aspect of change that I've given a lot of thought to concerns the censorship I'm going to have to bring to the modes of entertainment that I indulge in. For instance there are many DVDs on my shelf that won't be appropriate viewing material for a younger child. It's going to be tricky to figure out what I can expose my offspring to, and at what age. I've had occasion to speculate a bit on that subject previously. A couple of months ago I even wrote a post on the subject. Today I went out for lunch with a buddy of mine, and his twelve-year-old son. The kid is right on the cusp of that non-communicative age wherein it becomes progressively impossible to extract any useful information. So I figured I'd grab the opportunity to find out what type of stuff he's interested in.
Not surprisingly this preteen boy is into skateboarding, videogames and anime. He has seen Spirited Away and a few other Hayao Miyazaki films. His gaming tastes run toward the more hyperviolent shoot-em-ups that require a game console to get the most out of. He's interested in the new Transformers movie, but he enjoyed the 1985 version as well. Of course anything with superheroes has a possibility of engaging him. And he's into the martial arts, so he has found his way to a few Bruce Lee Films, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Ultimate Fighting (which seems to me to be the updated version of the professional wrestling I was so enamored with as a kid). Beyond that I really can't say what holds his interest. But I guess that's a good foundation to build upon.
I don't know how useful it is for me to consider the things I was into when I was his age. Technology has introduced a whole new set of possibilities for the current generation. By the time I have a child in his double digits I expect that the times will have brought even more inconceivable things. Yet it's still kind of fun to think back and remember what I liked. The completion of my first decade on earth saw the introduction of the very first home videogame systems. Up until that time, I recall spending a lot of quarters in the video arcade. The machines back then were less realistic, and thus the depicted violence was less graphic. Double Dragon and Karate Champ were a lot more like cartoons than anything you'd experience in reality. And the box-like images on the Atari 2600 were almost completely unrecognizable. It would have been ridiculous to suggest that Space Invaders could lead to maladaptive social behaviors.
We did get into our share of shenanigans. Fireworks were a source of almost limitless fascination. My friends loved to blow up whatever toys they had outgrown. We played playground sports. I still see kids outside in my neighborhood doing the same. But our indoor options were much more limited than today. The only pay channel we could get in our area was HBO. Network television was still king. There was no internet. Eventually MTV was introduced, and things began to change quickly. Up until then we lived for Saturday morning and afterschool cartoons.
My family did have a VHS player fairly early. Between the brand new movie channels and videotapes, I did have access to a wide array of movies. Interestingly both my adult buddy and I were exposed to the slasher genre by our parents, and at a pretty young age. My mom loved watching horror, and I joined her in front of the TV. We watched Friday the 13th, Halloween, Amityville Horror, Altered States, The Shining, Jaws, etc. When the sex scenes came onscreen I was instructed to cover up my eyes. But I watched all the kill scenes with rapt attention. I had a high threshold for that stuff. However there was one movie that gave me nightmares for years- Terror Train with Jamie Lee Curtis and David Copperfield. That actually put me off scary films until I was in college.
I'm not sure if I should have been watching that stuff as a preteen. But I liked doing it, and I suppose I turned out "alright". Well... I'm not a serial killer, anyway. Yet I am still enthralled by the darker material of life. I suppose that any consideration of sheltering a child must take into account his/her individual personality. Undoubtedly people reach the capability of handling different subject matters at varying points in their lives. Like so much else when it comes to child-rearing, I guess it makes the most sense just to wait and see.
Not surprisingly this preteen boy is into skateboarding, videogames and anime. He has seen Spirited Away and a few other Hayao Miyazaki films. His gaming tastes run toward the more hyperviolent shoot-em-ups that require a game console to get the most out of. He's interested in the new Transformers movie, but he enjoyed the 1985 version as well. Of course anything with superheroes has a possibility of engaging him. And he's into the martial arts, so he has found his way to a few Bruce Lee Films, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Ultimate Fighting (which seems to me to be the updated version of the professional wrestling I was so enamored with as a kid). Beyond that I really can't say what holds his interest. But I guess that's a good foundation to build upon.
I don't know how useful it is for me to consider the things I was into when I was his age. Technology has introduced a whole new set of possibilities for the current generation. By the time I have a child in his double digits I expect that the times will have brought even more inconceivable things. Yet it's still kind of fun to think back and remember what I liked. The completion of my first decade on earth saw the introduction of the very first home videogame systems. Up until that time, I recall spending a lot of quarters in the video arcade. The machines back then were less realistic, and thus the depicted violence was less graphic. Double Dragon and Karate Champ were a lot more like cartoons than anything you'd experience in reality. And the box-like images on the Atari 2600 were almost completely unrecognizable. It would have been ridiculous to suggest that Space Invaders could lead to maladaptive social behaviors.
We did get into our share of shenanigans. Fireworks were a source of almost limitless fascination. My friends loved to blow up whatever toys they had outgrown. We played playground sports. I still see kids outside in my neighborhood doing the same. But our indoor options were much more limited than today. The only pay channel we could get in our area was HBO. Network television was still king. There was no internet. Eventually MTV was introduced, and things began to change quickly. Up until then we lived for Saturday morning and afterschool cartoons.
My family did have a VHS player fairly early. Between the brand new movie channels and videotapes, I did have access to a wide array of movies. Interestingly both my adult buddy and I were exposed to the slasher genre by our parents, and at a pretty young age. My mom loved watching horror, and I joined her in front of the TV. We watched Friday the 13th, Halloween, Amityville Horror, Altered States, The Shining, Jaws, etc. When the sex scenes came onscreen I was instructed to cover up my eyes. But I watched all the kill scenes with rapt attention. I had a high threshold for that stuff. However there was one movie that gave me nightmares for years- Terror Train with Jamie Lee Curtis and David Copperfield. That actually put me off scary films until I was in college.
I'm not sure if I should have been watching that stuff as a preteen. But I liked doing it, and I suppose I turned out "alright". Well... I'm not a serial killer, anyway. Yet I am still enthralled by the darker material of life. I suppose that any consideration of sheltering a child must take into account his/her individual personality. Undoubtedly people reach the capability of handling different subject matters at varying points in their lives. Like so much else when it comes to child-rearing, I guess it makes the most sense just to wait and see.
Labels: Fatherhood, Violence
posted by Merge Divide at 8:36 PM
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