**sigh**
I try so hard. Really, I do. I try to keep my kids sheltered from things that will cause them to be lying on a sofa someday, purging all of the dysfunctional aspects of life these days. But you know I fail sometimes. I am sure I will hear about this one someday.....
Shall I start with my intent? Why not? Always better to begin a parenting story with your good intentions, right?
I have been trying to help my kids, over the past year or so, learn more about God's amazing creation through many different ways. Hiking. Parks. Going new places. Learning about different cultures by trying new foods. I am determined to foster an environment where our creation is appreciated, and I have really kept outside of the mainstream world while doing it. I haven't focused on the game systems, big budget concerts, high ticket adventures as much this last summer. We are just more of a low key family, I think. It works for us. But when the Disney movies came out ("Earth", "Oceans" and "Babies") we were all excited for those. We are a Discovery channel family, so these were really cool to us. Documentaries about things we love.
The other day, we chose to watch "Babies." According to the little blurb describing the movie on On Demand, the documentary followed the first year of life for four babies. They were from Japan, Mongolia, U.S. and Africa. Now. I SHOULD have looked into the movie a little more closely, so I could have been prepared. I didn't. I didn't read anything about the PG rating for "cultural and maternal nudity throughout." Not "mild." Not "brief." "THROUGHOUT." Nope. It was about babies, for crying out loud! How did I know there would be too many boob shots to count! Now, as an adult, (and a straight woman) I didn't notice. I had even had a conversation with Indira one time about breastfeeding when we had some friends who had a newborn. She remembered and really was fine. I don't think it phased her. At all. She's nine. And a girl.
Drew is six and a boy.
It disturbed him. And I feel terrible about it. It was one of those situations when you don't know WHAT to do. Do I ignore it and hope he doesn't notice. Nope. Not going to work. ALL FOUR stories showed breastfeeding. No getting around that. And the African tribe that was followed? No shirts at all. Ever. What was I going to do? Tell him to leave the room every time we caught a flash of a nipple? I didn't want him to think anything was wrong, though. It was natural. There was nothing wrong with any of it, but I also didn't want him to be uncomfortable! I hate it when you don't know WHAT to do! Hindsight says.....I SHOULD HAVE READ MORE ABOUT THE DOCUMENTARY BEFORE VIEWING IT WITH MY SIX YEAR OLD BOY. Too late. And the part that stunk the most....the baby parts of the movie were amazing to him. He really enjoyed seeing how different cultures lived and watching those little babies! What did I do?
After a couple of boob shots, and seeing his face look a bit troubled....
I asked him to sit with me. I told him that I didn't realize this movie would show breast feeding. I then had a great opportunity to explain what that was and how cool it was for God to create the exact food a baby needs right there inside the mommy! It was great to see him amazed at a miracle, and breastfeeding is just that! Now, onto the topless African women....
What an interesting way to explain how cultures differ! I am pretty sure it still seemed strange to both of my kids to run around half naked. But still. An opportunity to talk about how JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING IS DIFFERENT OR STRANGE TO YOU....DOESN'T MEAN ITS WRONG. This was a great lesson for my kids. How cool it is that they respect different cultures!
The solution? After our paused break for the conversation, we went on to watching and Drew chose to turn his head when it showed any breastfeeding scenes. (We talked about how that was okay to feel more comfortable NOT looking.)
As terrible as it sounds, there were really only a handful of scenes. It wasn't some tasteless movie with nudity. It was no different than a National Geographic article. I just hadn't planned on handing Drew a National Geographic!
I hope this doesn't surface someday with a therapist. I truly tried to handle it the best way I knew how. I didn't want to overreact. I didn't want to ignore it, so we talked about it. Who knows if I did the right thing or not!
Until next time....read those ratings a little more carefully, would ya?
