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Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 9:52PM If you have a preschool age kid that watches entirely too much 30 minutes a day of Noggin, then you have probably gotten asked about the "movie with the alien and the astronauts". The first time Lucas asked we had NO CLUE what he was talking about. He kept saying "The show on Noggin about the astronauts that kill the space alien!" and Jason and I are looking at each other wondering when Lucas learned how to really use the remote and watch the SciFi channel, which lead to me accusing Jason of watching Battlestar Galactica while the kid was awake. Later in the day, when the commercial promoting Nick's playing of the classic children's movie ET the Extra Terrestrial came on, Lucas nearly wet himself with excitement as he pulled me away from the computer preparing nutritious and delicious all organic and low fat kids meals, to show me the movie he was referring to earlier. "Ohhh! ET! Yes! Of course you can see that movie!" I declared with sweet memories of a delightful movie of a boy and his alien friend came rushing back to me. I looked at Jason, "I think ET was the first movie I ever cried during!"
Of course, we forgot to set the DVR and totally missed the (edited) version on a children's television network.
No worries screaming, whining child! We will put it on our Netflix!
3-days later (hey, we had to return Elizabeth the Golden Years that had been sitting here for the past 2 months), ET arrive to the squeals of delight from the boy. We started to watch it last Friday with his little buddy, Tate, but Tate didn't like "when ET's neck got long" and he just wanted to continue to play transformers. No worries, we will watch it tomorrow. It was nice to have something inside to do during the COLD RAINY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND (what the f?!)
I was actually excited. It had been years since I saw the movie and I was looking forward to reliving a childhood favorite with my kid. Because thats why we became parents! So we sit down and watch it.. first scene.. wait?? Is the teenage brother playing poker with his friends and smoking?! Huh? What? And the mother is HOME and allowing that?! Wait - did they just say "shit"? Checking the sleeve for rating...
I'm getting a little nervous now. Maybe this movie is WAY too old for Lucas. I start worrying about nightmares about aliens in the garage, when Elliott jumps up and yells at his brother "Shut up PENIS BREATH!" and Lucas collapses on the floor giggling repeating "penis breath! penis breath! hahahahaha!!!"
Oh, crap.
Yea, guess it's best to re-watch movies before letting you kid watch them. But then it struck me, aren't we supposed to be this liberal generation? This generation that doesn't hide things from our kids and whose kids have been exposed to way more things than we ever were growing up? If that's the case, why am I so shocked by smoking and swearing in a movie? For all of our liberal "hipster" parenting ideals, we still don't want to be the parents of the kid who screams profanities in the middle of pre-k.
Insanity 
Reader Comments (6)
Uh, I was totally going to comment on the hair. But now I have to comment on you being officially a hispter fuddy duddy. Dude, what the hell? When did you turn on me? We were reading VC Andrews and Clan of the Cave Bear (i.e. soft core porn) when we were 10! "Eliot" is not much older than Lucas, and if they allowed him to say that in 198whatever on film, I think you have not shirked your parental duties in allowing Lucas to hear that.
PS Change your hair. It does grow back, you know!
We watched E.T. with Raegan a few months ago and she watched the entire movie and for a live action movie that says a lot. She was scared when E.T. first came on the screen, but we reassured her he was a nice alien. And then when he is dying, we had to let her know that he lives and gets to go home. All in all, she loved it. BTW, Robert McNaughton (the older brother) was my neighbor and recreational use buddy for several years.
Oh, have you tried 'Goonies' yet? Holy CRAP!
Try taking 15 6 year olds to see Speed Racer for a birthday party and explaining why the bad guy is torturing a guy by beating the crap out of him and threatening to stick his hand in a tank full of pirranahs. Oh and then try telling them not to say, "get that shit off of my track!" afterwards while running around the theater pretending to be Speed Racer waiting for their parents to pick them up. Sigh... What happened to G rated movies?
When Beth goes to see the Sex And The City movie, Lucas and I are gonna watch "Saving Private Ryan".
omg.. i totally was listening to ET while baking brownies the other day. (Yes... ''those'' brownies) and realized a small drew barrymore's voice. did Lucas enjoy the movie beyond the Penis Breath?