Watch Your Language

I was gently reminded that I didn't post my March column  here for those non-locals who can't pick up the paper. Here ya go...


COLORING OUTSIDE THE LINES: WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE

I’m jumping up onto a first-world, 21^st century pedestal. I realize there are bigger fish to fry, but this one gets my goat. (An awful lot of animal references for a vegetarian, no?).

My grievance:  I cannot stand the language used in movies and television shows for kids.  Most of the entertainment meant for children is crass and rude and pretty much the opposite of how I would prefer my children speak to one another.

I’m talking about movies that are animated or CGI (computer generated imagery, i.e. Pixar) and look like they are meant for the 5-10 age bracket, but sound more appropriate for the pre-teen masses. They use dialogue that, by today’s standards, are perfectly acceptable words and phrases to hear come out of the mouth of a seventh grader.  I tend to feel like the same words are less suitable when used by my first grader.  I’m a bit of a word snob that way I guess.

I read somewhere at some point that the older language is added to appeal to the older kids. You know, so they don’t get grumpy about going to some kid movie, for kids, as a … kid. I might be wrong, but if a ten-year-old is at that particular movie, it’s either because 1) They wanted to see it; or 2) They were dragged there against their will and are going to be grumpy with or without the word ‘stupid’ being used.

Half the time, the younger kids (like mine) don’t even know the word being said or what’s implied when they say it, but they repeat it anyway because it’s in that movie they love and it got an on-screen laugh. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I am a pro at using these un-cursed words myself … the ones that aren’t official curse words and don’t count as bad, right up until that second that your darling pre-schooler repeats them. Recently, while working on blending sounds, I asked my six-year-old twins to give me examples of words that start with the cr- sound.

“Crown!” “Crayon!” “Crib!” “Crap!”.

OOPS. It happens. We all know it happens. Sure, there are worse words and they are going to hear them somewhere, but must we dress them up and dance them around in front of the youngsters for the sake of entertainment? I’m just not sure that a fairytale creature saying, “Shut up!” is the way to go.  Even classics like *Annie (1982) added arguably the most offensive curse word there is (twice) so the movie would appeal to an older audience. Of course, you don’t have to let them watch. You can doom your children to a life of Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues (which, in turn, makes YOU want to cuss).

Hollywood… watch your language. I’m tired of my kids repeating that crap.

*According to the International Movie Data Base: www.imdb.com