No movies! No movies! No movies!

[JennifersLost]

When will I ever learn?????

 

My intentions are good. I want to show the kids documentaries about the historical periods we're covering. I don't try to show them regular movies, since the level of gore and sex in most of them make me cringe as a grownup, so I reach for PBS or the History Channel, thinking "this will be safe."

 

NOT!

 

Sheesh....I just watched the first hour of a PBS documentary on Rome during the first century when it starts veering into Ovid's sexual adventures, and the even worse, into Caesar Augustus' daughter's sexual proclivities, complete with nice painted diagrams of people having sex in many different positions.

 

Aaaaah! Did I mention I was watching this with my 11-year-old son?

 

My 15 year old won't even watch movies with me anymore - ANY movies - because we've had this happen one too many times and he's so incredibly embarrassed by it. (I think he's sworn off girls, too; I've scarred him for life with my history movies).

 

What do the rest of you people do?????

[skissugar]

dont feel bad, I have a 6yr old and a 10 yr old and i taped some stuff on the history channel about egypt. I though woohoo we can watch this and sat down.. all talk about sex.. well had to turn that one off quickly. DH asked, did you not screen this first?? Yah like ive had time to do that ugh.

[Remudamom]

The only safe thing to do is to watch first. Maybe you tape it then screen it.

 

We've had this happen, it's not so bad now that the kids are older, but sometimes we still watch a movie first and call them in later.

 

Our biggest shock was when we thought we could watch "Rome" together. Ummmm, nope.

[Kim in Appalachia]

I saw the beginning of a special or documentary on Rome. I think it was on the History channel. I thought I would buy it since we were going to be doing Rome the next year (At the time we didn't have cable and my oldest was around 10). Fortunately, I watch for more than the first 15 minutes, at which point they started describing, in detail, the s*xual exploits of the emperors. Definitely not for kids.

 

Then there was the documentary on Lincoln. It seemed safe enough until they started going on and on about how he "could" be gay because he slept in the same bed with men, and once loaned a man his shirt. They kept going on and on about it. I had to turn it off.

 

This year, I had planned to get Rob Roy (the movie) since we were reading the book. Luckily, a friend warned me.

 

There have been a few others. I always feel stupid and try to remind myself to preview first. :001_smile:

 

It's frustrating that everything is made to be as crude as possible.

[JennifersLost]

Gaaack! Rome!

 

At least I didn't try that one, LOL.

 

Okay, you all just made me feel better. Someday there'll be a support group for WTM kids who got exposed to p*rn by their well-meaning, history loving parents. :lol:

[PrairieAir]

The History Channel has this series called The History of Sex. Very interesting stuff there. Dh was fascinated by how dirty-minded some of those ancients were. (I think we actually watched one on several ancient civilizations and one on the Victorian Era.) Youngest dd decided that it was the perfect opportunity to go upstairs and play on my computer without getting kicked off--same as she would for any documentary. The older kids watched part of it. It was interesting, if a bit disturbing at times.

[Chris in VA]

Now that I've gotten back up into my chair...

(I was on the floor, lmao)

 

I'd just say prewatch. I'm having some trouble using United Streaming effectively because I hate to watch before I assign, but many experiences have taught me to make sure I know all the content and how it's presented.

 

(and I'm still giggling.)

[PrairieAir]

This year, I had planned to get Rob Roy (the movie) since we were reading the book. Luckily, a friend warned me.

 

It's frustrating that everything is made to be as crude as possible.

 

Rob Roy is the one movie dh cannot stand. He can't even stand for it to be mentioned. He shudders at the mention of the name when used for other things (a pony on a blog I read, for example). Any r*pe scene would really bother him, but the one in Rob Roy disturbs him much more because of the good relationship between the husband and wife and then the fact that the wife does not tell her husband about the r*pe. This movie may be the only truly forbidden topic in our house!

[Jennifer in NH]

 

Someday there'll be a support group for WTM kids who got exposed to p*rn by their well-meaning, history loving parents. :lol:

:lol::lol::lol: That is just too funny! Thanks for the heads up though...I just joined netflix for the history documentaries..I'll guess I'll watch them first! Jamestown is coming in the mail today...one would think that would be safe...oh well, I can watch it tonight and they can view it tomorrow...sigh.

[Carol in Cal.]

On the one hand, I feel like I sleepwalked through my childhood, with adults talking over my head all the time about these references that were expurgated from all books and TV and movies at that time. So, for instance, we studied Romeo and Juliet in 9th grade, and all the bawdy humor was simply excised. I didn't even know it was there at all until I went to watch it on TV and found that my mom's version from college had a lot of stuff in it that was not in mine.

 

I would not have minded if they had just SAID that we were reading a expurgated version, but when I went to school and asked my teacher about this, she said that this was common practice, and was really embarrassed.

 

So I want DD to be sort of vaguely aware, on some level, that this kind of thing is gone from a lot of the stuff that she reads and sees, but that it would have been there in the original.

 

OTOH, it's quite different to read about something, than to read something, than to see something. DD is 12. I am OK with her reading ABOUT something, but not so much READING the EXPLICIT DESCRIPTION of it, and definately not SEEING it. And she has the same embarrassment about this. So far, to my knowlege, this has been an issue twice--very vague but somewhat explicit r**e descriptions in "So Far From the Bamboo Grove", and rather significant though short nudity in the movie of "Romeo and Juliet". I would rather she had not seen either of those. What's a mother to do.

Edited October 3, 2008 by Carol in Cal.

[HomeOnTheRanch]

 

Then there was the documentary on Lincoln. It seemed safe enough until they started going on and on about how he "could" be gay because he slept in the same bed with men, and once loaned a man his shirt. They kept going on and on about it. I had to turn it off.

 

 

 

Ack! I checked out a 4-video series from the library on Lincoln. I watched the first few with the kids and it seemed ok. They watched the last 2 on their own. Now I'm wondering if it was the same one. Maybe I need to check it out again to watch the last 2.

[Mrs. Readsalot]

Oh yes I need to be in your support group.

Just last week I had ds watch John Adams with me (this was a HBO special)

When they did the tar and feather scene he turned his head and said

"Let me know when I can look Mom."

Note I had not seen the movie but I "thought" John Adams was a safe title.

UGH!!!!!!

[HRAAB]

Always, always pre-watch everything. I find it difficult to locate appropriate historical viewing material for my 11 yr old dd. I did watch the documentary on Ancient Rome and enjoyed it, but there was no way my dd would watch it.

 

Janet

[Lizzie in Ma]

I never rent anything without reading the reviews on Amazon. They are so very helpful and have helped me steer clear of most of the junk.

For instance, regarding Rome, the series, which I had hoped to watch with out 12 year old.......

Nope, no way

[Kim in Appalachia]

It wasn't that long. I know it was on the History channel, maybe you could check and see it they produced it.

 

The whole thing was so poorly done. They kept making up theories and then acting them out to make it look real (like Lincoln may have been against slavery because the house he lived in might have been near a route that slave traders used. Or because he worked and had to give his money to his father (a common practice in his day, they admit) he sympathized with those who weren't paid for their work). The whole "he could have been gay" thing drove me nuts, because they admitted that it was conjecture, but when on and on about it. They also kept attacking his wife, based on just a few known facts. It was NOT history, it was tabloid journalism.

[SquirrellyMama]

I have had this problem too with animal documentaries. It hasn't been with the sex part because when they see animals having relations they just think they are giving each other piggyback rides. My problem comes in when an animal dies.

 

We were watching one the other day and all the animals let a baby die. My dd was distraught. My dh was looking at me with an evil stare. I had to apologize a lot.

 

Kelly

[Nestof3]

I bought my son a PBS or History Channel (I cannot remember which one now) documentary on the Spartans. He really enjoyed the battle strategy and such of the Greeks. He also knew about many of the things the documentary mentioned regarding the sexual lifestyle and such, but reading about and seeing are two different things.

 

So, he just started to watch this film, when two topless women start wrestling in a standing position. Did they really need to include a visual on that?

 

Again, I rented the film Longitude, which was a fabulous documentary, and near the end, a door is opened, and a man is seen playing cards with a few topless women -- very vivid.

 

Is it so hard for these people to believe that there are people who are very interested in history but not nudity?

[lovemyboys]

When will I ever learn?????

 

My intentions are good. I want to show the kids documentaries about the historical periods we're covering. I don't try to show them regular movies, since the level of gore and sex in most of them make me cringe as a grownup, so I reach for PBS or the History Channel, thinking "this will be safe."

 

NOT!

 

What do the rest of you people do?????

 

So there with you.

 

When we were studying medieval period, the History channel was doing a series on the Vikings and the early Europeans, Anglo-Saxons.

 

I was excited -- it sounded really appropos with lots of weaponry and sieges. Since it was on after 9 pm, I previewed it to see if it was worth taping. The first section I saw was about someone conquering someone else and then the horrors of that era, disemboweling someone and leaving them to bleed to death for a couple days or something. It was gruesome.

 

So glad I didn't have ds sit with me on that one.

 

We've had your situation with a series or two from the library, they go into lovely detail about the "activities" of the rulers. But your ages are more apt to be mortified by it.

 

We've found lots of videos that worked for mid-grades for science but the history is much less available. Either very very dry or way too adult. :tongue_smilie: