The Bobcat Nation

OK folks generally I am a, “just change the channel” kind of Guy when it comes to censoring Television programming. I do get rather tiered of folks constantly complaining about this content or that content. I think in order to create thought provoking or just plain entertaining shows sometimes you need to stretch boundaries. If someone does not like a subject do not watch. If they don’t want their kids see a program block it out or god forbid monitor what their kids watch, it is called parenting.
That said let me contradict myself now. Currently there is a movie out and being advertised called “Hostel” as far as my sensibility judges it is a vile teen gore fest. Which is fine I guess I will not be plunking down my $$$$ to see it. Have you seen the ads though for this crap!!!! My kids have and I was up a good portion of the night with my 9 year old trying to explain to him it is just a bad make believe movie. It is I guess my fault. My kids wanted to watch the Cartoon Channel last night and I told them I wanted to watch sports channel during dinner. I got to go from will “Houston sign Bush or Young”, to “let me take this Binford 2000 to your eye ball” faster than I could get to the remote. The whole thing was over my 5 year olds head but my 9 year old put it together. All night I was answering questions like; “why would someone do that”; “are there anyone like that in Missoula”, “are people who go to that like that”. While no graphic violence was shown it traumatized my little guy!! Hell all things being said I would have preferred the guy seen a “Girls Gone Wild” (even with-out the black bars) commercial that that crap!! OK now I am terrified about changing the TV off the Cartoon Network. I will not let anyone change the channel except me for fear that commercial might be playing some where else on the tube. Be certain there is no NFL football today or tomorrow. Listen the commercial that I have seen makes me ill regardless of what it does to my kids, we censored condom ads. We push adult oriented shows to later in the evening. Why am I scared ****** about my kids being terrorized that they are going to slip this piece of trash into an episode of “Smallville”

well i hope my little guy doesn't see it. thanks for the 411 didn't know that was even out there. missoula is more progressive then yelm. Thank goodness for the Bible thumping, Ag loving, redneck town I live in. They wont even let Wal mart in because it's considered evil. i know this wont play at our 1 and only cinema. although chronicles have multiple screens wont worry about it being advertised in the little local paper either, so unless he hears about it at school, I wont have to worry

I really don't understand the allure that those kinds of movies seem to have, especially with the teenage crowd. It does seem like nothing more than porn-esque violence (violence for the sake of violence). If there is a really good plot around it, then at least it makes sense to me (such as Seven, Sin City, etc.), but even then, I can't stand to watch the gore parts myself. I'm kind of a wuss that way.

Those movies give me the creeps long after I catch a piece of them ... I can't imagine the effect they would have on a little guy or girl.

Hostel was also the top grossing movie in the country last weekend, so it is/will be in every chain movie theater in the country.

Tarantino is involved with the film, though, so maybe there is an actual cool plot around it that is just getting lost in the gorish promos.

A person goes to horror movies because he/she likes the adrenaline rush that generally occurs from viewing the violence (there's gotta be a study or 10 on that subject). I don't think it's any more complicated than that. Most teens are drawn to those movies for that reason - it must be hormonal. I remember going to horror films as a teen, because it was a rush to get scared...Halloween, Friday 13th, Alien...also, as a teen, there's a really good chance to see some skin if the movie has an R rating! Bonus!

All those things don't matter to me anymore. I think the older you get, the more these types of movies have the counter affect (i.e., rather than getting a rush, you get disturbed - it must be hormonal)...and if you've seen one person's skin, you've pretty much seen them all!

Tarantino clearly has demons he is fighting, and he fights them through his movies - not unlike Stephen King did through his novels. BAC is right - Tarantino is at the top of the heap when it comes to movie plots.

Back to mslacat's issue with his kids seeing the Hostel trailer. I welcome the opportunities that I have to explain the difference between make-believe and real life to my kids. Sometimes, these opportunities present themselves like it happened with mslacat. mslacat's kids are better off seeing the trailer, and having it explained that "it's a movie." God knows, his kids will learn soon enough about real life through their own experiences. I think to deny your kids of these growth opportunities just makes it even more difficult to deal with real world situations down the road. I'm not saying, seek out the disgusting things on t.v. so you can talk to your kids, but when they present themselves, consider it to be a great chance to be a good parent.

Back to mslacat's issue with his kids seeing the Hostel trailer. I welcome the opportunities that I have to explain the difference between make-believe and real life to my kids. Sometimes, these opportunities present themselves like it happened with mslacat. mslacat's kids are better off seeing the trailer, and having it explained that "it's a movie." God knows, his kids will learn soon enough about real life through their own experiences. I think to deny your kids of these growth opportunities just makes it even more difficult to deal with real world situations down the road. I'm not saying, seek out the disgusting things on t.v. so you can talk to your kids, but when they present themselves, consider it to be a great chance to be a good parent.

I fully agree. I just have other things to deal with currently to want to have to deal with horror flicks at 6 and 2 1/2. Hope they don't notice if the trailor is shown here. Our Cinema already released they wont play it, same with brokeback. figure if people want to see it they'll drive to olympia.

Missoula is about 20X the population of it here in Yelm, so i'm sure it will be popping up there. Plus the College kids will pay to see it. Not worth my money.

Just like any situation in life, the more you over react the more interesting it becomes to your kids. I have found it quite enjoyable talking to my kids different topics. The more up front you are, the better they handle it. If you have a problem saying penis and vagina to your kids, you should probably work on your delivery.

Just like any situation in life, the more you over react the more interesting it becomes to your kids. I have found it quite enjoyable talking to my kids different topics. The more up front you are, the better they handle it. If you have a problem saying penis and vagina to your kids, you should probably work on your delivery.

well since i do have a boy penis was being screamed around my house since about age 2, he's going on 7 now Most the time just to embaress mom you know that whole bit about "look mommy i have a penis and look what i can do with it" at 2 1/2 my daughter is now potty training so we have had that talk. I'd rather talk about their bodies and what the parts are there for than discuss why things are happening in a horror flick.

i agree, sometimes penis and vagina are easier to discuss than other things.

I wouldn't say it's easier, but this is in the context of small children. small children are very curious, and it is a given that they will at somepoint between 18-3 fixate for a period of time on their bodies, and the obvious parts. so it is a given the words penis and vagina come up. although my daughter let it go in one ear and out the other, little boys (and not so little), well they like the penis, so you deal with that all the time hope neither one of my children will fixate on horror movie crud at any point in time.

I probably should have put "penis and vagina" in quotes. I wasn't just talking about using the words, but all the topics surrounding them. I should have said "penis and vagina topics". when your kids are older(my daughter is 17, son 15, son 11) "penis and vagina topics" are very relevant. Not just sex topics. you'd be surprised at where topics go from where they started. very good stuff.
An example of a "penis and vagina topic" would be school dances. When my boys where/are in middle school we made sure that if they went to a dance and a girl asked them to dance, you never said no. even if she wasn't "cute" or "popular". middle school is a tough time especially for girls and if you said"god no, i'm not dancing with you" it's not good for their self esteem.

that's a good rule, to be kind and polite. AT 6 Ben has 4 little "girlfriends" just on our block. I had to kabosh the kissing him already, because I didn't like it. Cute they fight over who gets to play with him and hold his hand, so we have to take turns good practice as i know he already likes the hotties. This Sept. at rodeo he strolled up to the rodeo queen ( pretty gal in her early 20's) all cowboyed up in his jeans and hat, stuck out his hand and announced " I'm Ben and I'm a cowboy, I can ride a horse (team ropers were in the arena)too, you want my number?" I was embaressed that he was so bold, she smiled and said "come back when you're legally cutie and i'll take it" he was proud told her "alright, but i might have other girls so you'll have to share" she and I just laughed. So with him i WILL definitely start those talks early

Baby girl is like her momma, only interested in horses and good food Besides when it comes down to those thalks with her (she's only 2 1/2) i'll be really good with my 9mm, and let the boys know none of that will be happening with her unless they marry her first. I can hope anyway. No matter what they see or what they hear in the outside world kids can learn something greater at home if you invest time into them and are open to whatever topic comes up.

Although i must admit, when the penis issues do happen i prefer dad handle them, however, the Army always has him deployed somewhere when Ben does decide that's what he wants to talk about. i'm starting to get better at those issues, and don't blush so often now when he comes to me with little boy questions.

I've never seen "The Day After" but the previews were enough to send me into hysterics as a child. Sure, great starting ground for my parents to talk to me. They could talk till they were blue in the face, and none of it made a darn bit of difference to me. I was terrified to go to bed at night, I had nightmares abour war, nuclear war, etc. I can still remember the fear clearly, although I see now how unreasonable it was, I knew we were going to be attacked during the night by Russia and my uncle in the AF was going to be killed.

I assume this is similar to what Mslacat is talking about with his 9 year old. I was the same age, when you start to really take a notice of the bigger world, and realize what a scary place it is.

Yes, as parents we need to talk to our kids about things, and yes things in society will prompt us to. But these kinds of advertisements do not belong on TV, especially during daytime or Primetime.

I'm just glad that we still watch Noggin and Playhouse Disney most of the time.

And I've gotten to look at my eldests "Cool Penis" and my middle one asked me if he could play with his balls.......

I remember being depressed as a kid from watching news programs that (exactly like today, except with less competition) were touting every obscure disease and potential danger as something that every parent should fear. It was good for ratings, apparently, but it convinced me that there was no point in planning on living to adulthood because at least one of the numerous ailments and dangers they ranted about was going to kill me soon anyway.

So yeah, I can definitely see how this kind of imagery could really spook a kid.

I also had trouble sleeping for a month after I read the Amityville Horror in 4th grade. Had I known it was a fraud then as I know now, it would have kept me from acting like Tweek from South Park for several weeks.

oh ChiO my fav is at 4 when they start to get little erections and pull down their pants and ask "mommy can you make it go away" I always tell him to do squats - so he told his friends at school if "your pee pee ever gets hard all you have to do is just EXERCISE" that's when you look around and go "darn it i need a man in the house." He also informed his preschool class that mom was wrong if you yank really hard it wont fall off no matter how hard you try pulling on it all the joys of raising a little boy. they'll whip that sucker out anywhere. love traveling in MT when potty training, pull over and tell him just find any tree. He thought it was SOOO cool. could run all over our property and pee anywhere he wanted because none of the neighbors could see you when you have acreage. That's also when I knew it's time to move out of city limits and buy acreage again.

but back on thread - I just try to keep our TV on family channels until after kids sleep, because I know my boy is sensitive to those type of trailors. I also censor the news, small kids don't need to hear that stuff it scares them. with Brian deploying we never watch any news on the war. It is really scary especially evertime the ft. lewis soldiers are involved/killed it makes him really anxious.

our friends son drew a family portrait for kindergarten or 1st grade. He drew his mother naked with correct coloring of her pubic hair..........they were proud.

since this thread is now silly kid stories. here's a fav for me. when my son was 4 I had our dog fixed, Ben had been a little naughty for his teacher the week before. this week he'd been a real angel for her. when the teacher asked him what had changed from the week before to this week he responded with this "do you know what happens when you are a naughty boy at my house? teacher asked him in a concerned way "what happens when you are naughty at your house?" ben said "momma takes you to the vet and the vet cuts your balls off!" he added " I don't want the vet to cut my balls off! My dog is really sad and he walks funny now."

Have to love kids - they're honest

Rebecca..that's pretty funny.

it was really funny at the time. it made me realize just how much power parents can have over their kids. The Friday before when we took our dog to the vet to be fixed I had tried to explain to Ben why he was going to the vet. The dog had been jumping up on the sofa and mounting the pillows. so i explained to my son that the dog had been a really naughty boy and that the vet was going make sure he behaved better at home for mommy. When we picked him up the following day from the vets office, the dog was whining and could barely walk . he asked me what did the vet do to his dog to make him good. I said "well honey the vet just cut off his testicles." he screamed " the vet cuts off his balls!!!" I said yes because he was naughty, and now he wont be anymore.

I had no idea he'd think I would have that done to him if he was bad for his preschool teacher. I guess i'm a mean momma don't mess with me or it's off with your balls!!!

My roommate and his girlfriend saw the movie this weekend, and he said it was awful ... and he's a guy who generally likes horror flicks (just not stupid ones). He said there was no plot, and lots of violence for the sake of violence.

On the other end of the spectrum, my girlfriend and I saw Munich this weekend. Amazing film ... and thought provoking while also being deeply emotional. It doesn't fit into any of the silly red or blue stereotypes, either. It just makes the viewer think hard about some questions that are probably impossible for anyone to answer.

It does seem to suggest that terrorism is bad ... but that's about the only easy answer in the whole thing.

i have always wanted to see munich but with work and all no time for free time let alone movie time.

rebecca with your stories you are making me wish i can just skip dating and go straight into marriage...i have always wanted family/kids