Categories: uncategorized
Date: 08 February 2006 15:18:30
(btw, thanks for the link, Katie. It's a very good blog).
I keep nearly missing my stop on the bus these days. I nearly did it again this morning. Luckily someone else always wants to get off at the stop I want to get off at, rings the bell and wakes me from my reverie. I keep getting a bit lost in my own thoughts and my own world, thinking and wondering and asking myself questions that I won't be able to answer for awhile yet.
Little things occur to me, and I start to wonder 'Is it actually a little thing, or is it a big thing?'
Like movies. I love animation. Especially CGI, so I have quite a collection of movies that would generally be asssumed to be for a younger market. And one of my favourite kids' films is Stewart Little. (cute CGI mouse, has me written all over it :-)
But a conversation that I read on the Adoption UK bulitain boards a few months ago about Nanny McPhee really started to get me thinking. The discussion was about whether people were intending to take their children to see Nanny McPhee and if they had already, how did their children cope with the themes like the loss of a mother and being "taken away" (hmm, I'll talk about language later), and how did they talk things through with them? Most parents said that yes, if their children want to see it they would take them, but several said they would wait til it came out on DVD so they could watch it together at home (and with security blankets/pets/hot chocolate) in a safe environment and when they could pause any upsetting parts and talk about it.
Wow. Adoption does make you look at everything in a new light, doesn't it?
I haven't seen Nanny McPhee yet, but I want to. But good ole Stewart Little is the film in my own collection that I started asking myself the same question about. It's probably aimed slightly younger, but in the film the family (human) adopt Stewart (a mouse) from an orphanage. The family is told by the orphanage that they generally discourage people from "adopting outside of their own species" to which Mr and Mrs Little protest saying that Stewart is just right for their family. Which he is, until one day Mr and Mrs Mouse show up, saying that they are Stewart's "real parents" and he leaves the Little family home, his mom and dad are now Mr and Mrs Little and his brother is now no longer his brother.
Phew, I'm sweating already. These issues didn't seem scary in such a simple kid's movie before to me. Now I'm trying to look at it from my future child's perspective and I think "ouch". I know everybody watches films differently, but children have a way of empathising with what the characters are going through in a way that many adults have lost. I suppose like the people on the discussion board, if my kid/s want to see something, watch it together, hit the pause if they get upset, and talk about it before, during and after.
Or is that too much?
Can you think of any other movies (Harry Potter obviously) for kids that would have potentially upsetting themes for a child who has moved from family to family and changed relationships in their life?