Did your parents care about movie ratings?

[redhawk23]

For most of my life, movie ratings have been irrelevent. I dont know if my parents just flat out didn't pay attention to movie ratings, or just don't place much stock in them, but basically I've always been alowed to watch just about anything. From a very young age I watched alot of movies that I likely had no business watching, but really I don't think its had much of an adverse effect. I mean theres no coincidence that I am a fan of violent or gorey movies, but thats more of a matter of being amazed by special effects (i think et is just as awesome as the chestburster). There were somethings my parents didn't let my siblings and I watch but that usually wasnt the case. They were usually weary of nudity and sex scenes and would try to fastforward through them, which my dad was horrible at doing, never quite figuring out the vcr remote, and by the time he fown the ffw button, we had already seen what he was trying to skip through. Violence was not something my parents worried about at all.

My local theater until about 2 years ago, paid absolutely no attention to movie ratings, and would sell a ticket to any movie to anyone, the old video rental store was similarly lax. It was quite awesome.

It somewhat blew my mind as I got older and discovered even as teenagers how uptight most of my friends parents were on the matter of movie ratings. I have friends who literally never saw a pg 13 movie before their 13th birthday, including one friend who framed his 13th birthday party around finally getting to watch jurrassic park (this dispite playing with merchendise from jurrassic park for most of his life). Even still as my friends and I are nearly 20, I find that I have seen far far more movies than most of my friends, (I guesse the 2 years since their 17th birthdays haven't been enough times to catch up on all the r-rated films they missed out on)


How did your parents act about movie ratings?

 

[GregComicFan]

My parents didnt care about violence. I saw many many many R rated films with my father in movie theaters prior to me turning age 17 (Robocop, Die Hard, etc.)...

My parents did care about sex scenes though and female nudity. I had to close my eyes.

lol

 

[Gentleman Owl]

Yeah sex and nudity was a no no and I don't think I was given freedom to watch whatever I want until I was a tween and even then sex and nudity was a no no. And normally if I watched these 'adult' films, my parents would watch them with me.

 

[Pink Ranger]

I was essentially raised by my mother, and I don't think she ever even understood what ratings meant. I remember being taken to Tarzan The Ape Man when I was 7, a movie that was basically Bo Derek running around naked for an hour. Of course, it didn't affect me in any way.

In the unlikely event I have children, I'm going to be a complete fascist thought police when it comes to things like adult-rated movies, TV, games, etc. With the full knowledge that they will seek out such materials behind my back and there's nothing I can do about that.

 

[terry78]

Mom did, the old man didn't. He took me and my sister to see Robocop when it came out and we were 9 and 5, respectively.

 

[Gentleman Owl]

The only things I'd be dubious about letting my children (if I ever have any) watch are horror movies. Admittedly now I don't think I'm ever frightened by horror movies. And I have no idea if thats because they aren't scary or if all the nightmares horror movies gave me as a kid desensitized me. Either way, I don't want my kids having nightmares because of me.

 

[chaseter]

They cared about gratuitous sex and nudity and over the top language and violence. I got to watch Scary Movie when I was 14 or 15. They let me watch There's Something About Mary even though I didn't get most the jokes. They let me watch Interview with a Vampire when I was young, etc. Pretty much porn and extremely nasty movies were off limits.

I had a tv in my room so I could watch pretty much whatever I wanted. We had HBO and Cinemax when I was young so I was pretty much introduced to everything.

They had rules but you really can't stop a 12 year old from watching whatever they want at 1 am.

 

[redhawk23]

My parents didnt care about violence. I saw many many many R rated films with my father in movie theaters prior to me turning age 17 (Robocop, Die Hard, etc.)...

My parents did care about sex scenes though and female nudity. I had to close my eyes.

lol

Same here.



In the end I recognize that there were some things I probably shouldn't have watched but not even on standards of violence or nudity, rather just thematically. There are a number of movies that I saw when I was about 9 that I watch now and realize how much I simply didn't understand. Many I wish I hadnt seen because the story is so much better with that understanding, rather than knowing how the movie ends without thematic context.

 

[redhawk23]

I understand rules, and using ratings as a guideline, but the blind and strict adherence implemented by some of my friends parents still baffles me.

one of my friends wasnt even allowed to go see Revenge of the Sith until his parents saw it first. Its rated PG13. This was about a month before his 14 birthday.

 

[Maximus One]

Not sure..... I remember going to the drive-in when Terminator 2 came out and I was born in 84 so.... I also remember watchin Total Recall with my father like hundreds of times when i was a kid. There's no telling how distorted my world view is today as a result of seeing a beautiful 3-tittied mutant's middle-titty getting blown out lmao. Plus Kuato freaked me the **** out back then

 

[Dark Victory]

Not really. I remember going to video stores with my dad on weekends, stacking up on Robocop, Star Wars, Batman, Terminator, etc.

The only time I ever remember my parents putting on a restriction was with my mom and Chappelle's Show, but that was only for a few weeks.

 

[Max J Power]

They cared about R-rated movies but less so with the rest. I remember seeing Jurassic Park and Mrs. Doubtfire (both PG-13) in theaters when I was 6 or 7, but I didn't see any R-rated movies until I was about 15, and then it was only the ones with relatively limited violence and little sexual content/nudity.

 

[danoyse]

My parents watched the ratings - mostly because when I was little anything even remotely scary had me sleeping with the lights on for 3 weeks - and if they were on the fence about a movie they usually saw it first and made the decision from there.

For example, my mom's first words to me after she saw Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: "Not until you're 30."

 

[jmc]

Different ratings systems down here but I had folks who didn't really mind me watching stuff that I probably shouldn't have, I watched so many 80's horror films like Nightmare on Elm street, Friday the 13 etc. It wasn't until I got older that I realized just how age inappropriate some of those film were and was kinda shocked I was allowed to watch them. Take for instance The Rocky Horror Picture show, to my 8 year old eyes I saw a funny goth musical with people acting all weird, then I saw it again about 12 years latter and realized what was actually going on in that film and was like to my mother 'WTF? You let me watch that?'

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

I saw A Clockwork Orange when I was about 5, Nightmare On Elm Street when I was 7. Müllers Büro, a comedy from Austria which contained a LOT of nudity and sex scenes when I was 6...And I turned out pretty well..

 

[War Party]

My dad rented me Robocop when I was four and plenty of other awesome R-rated action movies and horror movies. One of my favorite movies when I was a kid was Evil Dead. So yeah, my parents didn't give a crap.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Just really sex and nudity were off limits. But other than that I they let me watch any movie we could get our hands on. T2 was my first R rated film at age 7. Although that was when I slept over at my cousin's house. The Rock came a little later.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

my parents didn't care at all. of course they always did give me the lecture of real life vs movies, make believe, and all that crap

some of the first movies i remember watching when i was like 4 or 5 was Terminator, Robocop, Aliens, Rambo, etc.

 

[terry78]

Usually it's often the mom that has the issues. Dad is like, "it ain't gonna hurt 'em." It's a fine line though, as mom may skew too far into "it will warp their minds" and Dad may be a litle TOO lenient about something that might freak you out.

 

[Ponyboy]

Yes. I was 11 when '89 Batman came out and my mother didnt want me seeing it *based on the reviews she'd seen and heard*... I couldn't watch "mature" movies until I was 15. I remember seeing Braveheart when it came out (with my Dad) and she had a cow.

 

[Iron_Stark]

No and neither did the theater we went to. My folks would drop off my brothers and I and i off the top of my head, I saw Robocop, Poltergeist, Nightmares 1-3, and a slew of other movies there.

That theater kicked ass, kung fu movies during the day, the main show in the evening, a couple of 3 Stooges episodes, and then bingo. All by midnight.

I wish it was still open all it has now is a sign that says Opening Soon. Been there for years.

 

[Iron_Stark]

doublepost

 

[bullets]

I think I was about seven and a babysitter was watching a horror movie and from then on I pestered my mom about it until she gave in( I didn't freak out after it). She watched a lot of horror and if there was any nudity I had to cover my eyes or sometimes leave the room for a few minutes.

I remember my parents bringing me and a friend to see Jurassic Park and they didn't realize he never seen violent movies up until that point ..it was funny.

 

[Drizzle]

I remember my mom didn't allow me to see Jurassic Park when I was five because she thought it'd be too scary for me. Telling a five year old boy that they can't see a movie about dinosaurs is like torture. Other than that, my parents were pretty lenient with stuff. I remember I watched a ton of R-rated movies on HBO back in the day and when I was 14 I started seeing them in theaters.

 

[Fanticon]

my parents didn't care... most of my friends' parents too. a couple of my cousins parents were strict so they loved coming to my house to watch r rated movies.