Too Little Information?

Jake is fascinated with movie ratings right now. He is astounded and appalled that some parents let their kids watch PG-13 movies before they are 13. This is one of those cases when I am glad my kid is a rigid rule follower. Definitely helps with movie and video game monitoring.

He is pretty curious about what earns films their ratings and has a good idea about PG-13, but is less clear on R and the other one (that I am afraid to type here b/c I don't want to come up on anyone's weird Google searches).

He couldn’t understand why mom and dad might even want to watch an R movie, so I explained to him that although there might be some foul language and violence in a movie, the rating is probably because the themes presented relate more to an adult’s life than a child’s. In fact, a child would probably find it boring. Whew.

I have no idea how he learned that the other rating exists-- probably at the lunch table-- but he is equally curious.

“Mom, what is in a (letter after W) movie?”

“I’m not quite sure, honey, because I’ve never seen one.”

“Well, is it violent?”

“I guess so.”

“Is there a lot of cussing?”

“I bet there is.”

“So mom, those movies have people running around killing each other and cussing?”

“Yes, Jake, I think you’ve got it.”

“……”

“Um, Jake, I think there might also be some nudity.”

“So it’s naked people running around cussing and killing each other?”

“Yes, Jake, I believe it is.”