The thumbnail used for this is perfect, why? Well because I am a Mom of my word – so when I say NO I mean NO, when I say MAYBE, I really do mean “I WILL THINK ABOUT IT” and when I say YES I mean YES. My sweet daughter is the only child of my ex and so she tends to have “only child syndrome” there, which is not the case for all ONLY child households, but most certainly she hears YES way more than NO at her Daddy’s home, and this face I get to have the pleasure of seeing way more often than I wish to, but for ever frown I do get at least three smiles too!

Sunday night I was riding home with my children when all of a sudden my oldest says, “Mama the movie Taken is a bad bad movie, do you know it?“. Okay for those who do not know what this movie is I have included the trailer in this post, it’s a good movie – I had only knew what it was because hubs and I watched it the previous weekend while my oldest was with her father. Of course we watched it on our Saturday movie night, after the boys were sleeping, because Taken, a movie with Liam Neeson, is rated PG-13 and although I think it should be rated R for age 17 and above, it’s not rated for age 6 and above.

This movie is very graphic, has a lot of fighting, includes references of drugs, and is about a young girl, age 17 who gets abducted while in Paris with her 19 year old friend and they end up being part of a human trafficking ring. This movie doesn’t really sound all that bad as I read the synopsis and the reason for the rating:

“Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing thematic material, sexual content, some drug references and language.”

However, this movie is BAD {for a six year old}, I would not even watch it with my child if she were 13 years old and this is rated for that age group. So you can imagine my surprise when my sweet daughter stated that she watched this movie with her father and her uncle. Oh yeah! My sweet, innocent little 6 year old watched a PG-13 movie that includes naked girls, dead people, extreme violence, drugged up women, threatening foul language and much more. I am upset, I am angry, I am sad, oh my gosh – so many emotions are running through me, my first reaction was my heart dropping and I felt like I was literally going to have a heart attack.

Now don’t get me wrong, SOME and remind you SOME PG-13 movies are “okay” for my 6 year old, I can’t find one off the top of my head at the moment but there are “some” that I would not feel this way about, however, Taken is by far a movie I would never want my child to know about. It covers a topic that is something a 6 year old has no reason knowing about. I mean seriously, as a parent reading the summary of this movie .. would you really think it be the best fit for a movie while sitting with your 6 year old? If you say yes, I guess we have different parenting styles and that’s perfectly fine, however, this is my daughter and my ex’s daughter, I feel I have some RIGHT to address this with him, I feel I have a right to let him know this is NOT okay, and I just don’t get what he was thinking.

Mind you, this is not a first. She has come home referencing songs that I would NEVER, and I mean NEVER let her listen to  – one singer comes to mind Eminem?! Yeah – that’s right she listens to that with her Dad. His response, “well she doesn’t even know what that means and she knows better than to swear“. Okay okay, he had me there, BUT does a child NOT get desensitized by seeing or hearing such language and other adult related topics? What happens when this child “who knows better” turns 13 and has been subjected to watching and hearing such language and seeing such inappropriate behavior? I think there is a big chance they will think it’s okay.

I am a firm believer in we teach our children through what we do, but my ex seems to think we tell our child what to do, but can do whatever we wish. I understand where he is coming from, and I completely understand his point that our daughter DOES know better, however, I still think he is filling our sweet, innocent little girls head with images that she should not see nor know anything about at such a young age.

NOTE: I am not saying I am the perfect Mom of the year, really who is? We all make mistakes, but sitting down and watching a movie of this specific nature with our child is not a mistake, it’s a bad choice that was made, it was not okay. I just don’t understand what a parent would be thinking to determine this movie would be a good fit for a movie night with your child? I will say my daughter said she fell asleep half way through this movie, but I will also note that the details she said to me let me know she saw enough of this movie to determine what it was about. This may be just my overprotective motherhood feelings coming out, and I am in no way saying my daughter’s dad is a bad dad – he is super involved and always there no matter what for our little girl, but sometimes I swear I want to give him that “what were you thinking smack”. LOL I am trying to make light of the situation because although I am upset with what I feel was his poor judgement, there are other things that could happen that are far worse than just a bad movie choice, I guess!

I will finish this with the last sentence my daughter said about this movie, “Mama the movie wasn’t that bad, it’s just that I now know I won’t go to Paris without you or Daddy even when I am 18. That girl was 17 and oh it was bad Mama“.

I personally liked this movie but there were scenes, even I, a 27 year old Mother of three couldn’t stomach. I love suspense! This movie was a great adult or mini-adult movie, not a six year old movie. So if you have not seen it, I invite you to watch it {without your six year old} and tell me…

Now what would you do? How would you feel about this situation? Would you watch such a movie with your six year old or am I just being WAY overprotective?  I am really frustrated and upset to know my daughter has had such images put into her head!