My seven-year old daughter and I had a mommy-daughter girls’ afternoon/evening out yesterday. She chose the activities. Of course, we HAD to go see a movie and then spend a ridiculous amount of time afterwards at Barnes and Noble looking through books and magazines and peruse puzzles that we’re never going to buy.
Anywho. The movie. We wanted to see Wonder, but it was sold out, so we opted for The Greatest Showman, which ended up to be pretty good. She enjoyed it way more than I did, as it turned out to be one of those musical-type-deals. I’m not really into those. My sweet baby girl loves that crap and ate it up with a spoon.
The trailers were forever long, and since the movie was PG – most were family-friendly titles. There was one, though, that was a little uncomfortable – not for me, but for me sitting next to my seven-year old daughter, mind you. It was Love, Simon. And it’s about a gay kid, and it looks like a sweet story – I’m just not sure I would’ve put the trailer for it in front of a PG movie, because I’m pretty sure this movie will be rated PG-13 (or should be, anyway). But then again, I’m not a trailer-placer. Now, mind you – my daughter and I have only had one brief discussion about being gay or lesbian. Also, she goes to a small school and doesn’t have a public-school-mandated-class on the numerous made up genders yet. I think I’ve mentioned this a few times, but she’s SEVEN.
This past Saturday, she saw this on the big screen:
I thought to myself, “wow, self…we’re definitely in a new era” when the two dudes about kissed each other during a trailer at the front end of a PG film. Because there we were. Mom and daughter. Getting ready to watch a sweet musical about P.T. Barnum, eating a big ol’ tub of popcorn and some Milk Duds, and suddenly I’m sideswiped with the fact that I’m going to have to answer questions in the car about two hours from that point about dudes kissing on a big screen. To a child that has only been alive on this planet for seven years.
Listen – I think this movie looks good, actually. My issue is with the fact that PG-13 trailers are being played in front of PG movies. I don’t think that should be happening. It’s an issue for me as a parent, especially since I just dropped an obscene amount of money on two movie tickets and a crap load of snacks. I picked a PG movie for my daughter for a reason. Period.
But y’all may have a different opinion.