Project 365 Day 2 + Our Parenting

Today my kids ate soup for lunch while Rammstein was playing.

Now of course, this brings up some interesting parenting ideas. My children, age 4.5 and 2.5, listen to Rammstein and this is not everyone's parenting choice. It seems strange to some parents (a lot as I am finding) to let the kids listen to things like this.

In general, as parents, my husband and I go about our lives as normal with the kids here. I didn't stop listening to the radio when I had kids, or switch to country or something more "family friendly". We listen to what we would otherwise listen to.

The same goes for movies. My children have seen all three Jurassic Park movies. They love dinosaurs, both of them, and like to know all about them. My husband and I are big fans of Jurassic Park just as good mindless stuff to have on the television plus, for its time, the special effects are pretty impressive.

I sat with them during all the movies and answered questions they had. I also watched faces during times that might be "scary" for them. Most of the violence, especially in the first movie, is implied, so they didn't really "get" a lot of the stuff that was suppose to be scary. One of the movies though (I can't remember if it is the 2nd or 3rd) has a giant T-rex eating a person. Now it isn't gory or bloody, but it clearly eats the man.

My son asked me why the dinosaur ate the man. So, I explained to him that scientists thought that when dinosaurs were alive, they ate meat (which has since some have thought to be bunk) just like the lions on the nature shows we watch. I asked him if he remembered how lions ate other animals, and he said he did, so I explained that if a T-rex was dropped in a city that people would just be like other animals to the dinosaur, so if it were hungry, it might eat people.

I then reminded him that dinosaurs aren't alive anymore and that the movie was all pretend.

He as fine with that, as was my daughter who was also watching.

It is all about knowing your kids and knowing what might upset them. It is also important to answer all the questions they have about what is going on. If I don't know the answer offhand, which sometimes I don't, I use the internet and find my answer. This applies to all things, not just material that may be "questionable" to other parents.

Now, this isn't to say that I will play Full Metal Jacket in front of my kids (or myself for that matter). We do have limits of course, but the reality is they are going to see and hear things out in the world that may not be entirely age appropriate and it is important to us to already have those lines of communication open so they know they can come to us and ask any question they want/ need an answer to.