Just Some Thoughts

I've mentioned how much I loved the movie Juno. What I haven't said is that I won't allow my daughter to watch it and that I'm a little unsure I approve of any of the Young Women at church seeing it either. If I were to make this point at church, some well-meaning person would likely tell me that if I don't want my children watching something, I shouldn't watch it either. Obviously, I disagree with that. I loved the movie because I am old enough to know that teen aged pregnancy doesn't really end in 'happily ever after.' I can appreciate the story and separate the dreamy ending from the reality of the situation. As the older sister of a one-time teen mom, I think I definitely have some perspective. BUT, I also love a good story. The same is true for most of my favorite shows. In real life, Starbuck and Apollo are a dysfunctional mess with no rooting power whatsoever, but I love to watch them make out on BSG. Do I really think there's anything good or beneficial from a couple of people meeting up once a year to cheat on their spouses? Absolutely not. But Same Time, Next Year is one of my all-time favorite movies. And while I seem to have outgrown them lately, All My Children, Days of Our Lives, and As the World Turns; used to brighten my afternoons every week.

So why is it OK for me and not my impressionable daughter to watch such things? Because I get it and she doesn't. I get that these things are just my preferred form of escapism, my distraction from the day-t0-day drudgery of raising four kids, cleaning house, and working part-time. I understand that behaving myself in real-life the way characters on TV or in a movie would, at the very least, make me look a fool; and at worst, come with permanent negative consequences. But my daughter? The younger youth at church? It's hard to say. I'm proud to write that I've watched very few episodes of Jerry Springer, but I've seen enough to know that this next generation doesn't seem to operate under that same filter of reality. They get an impulse and they act on it with no thought whatsoever for what happens next, and I find that more than a little scary. They see something on a movie and they try it at home. I don't like it, but I see it. As a mom, I hope I do a good job of teaching my children what's real and what's fiction, but until I do; I have a responsibility to make sure they are introduced to the world on a need-to-know basis and there are some things they just don't need to know yet. I, on the other hand, have learned more than my fair share, and I think that justifies the occasional escape from reality as long as I understand that's all that it is. And believe me, I do.