Home for the Holidays

After a rough therapy session I’m at my parents’ house for the holidays. I’m finding it a bit awkward to say the least. It’s amazing how we can go from practically yelling at each other in a small private office to pretending everything is fine and dandy in order to keep the peace. Still I’m not blogging about that tonight. I’m blogging about an experience I’ve already had while at home.

I have a much younger sister. She is a decade younger than myself. I also have a younger brother- he’s also in college. My brother, my father, my uncle, my sister and myself all decided to watch a movie tonight. We picked Braveheart. It’s my brother’s favorite movie and one of mine also. However there was the question of how appropriate it was for my small sister.

Let me set the stage, my parents don’t want my sister to stay the night with me in my city because of what I might expose her too. Yep that’s right, my parents don’t trust me with my sister because of what I might expose her too but they decided to let her watch a movie where in the first three minutes there is a house full of hung men and children.

That bothers me. I feel that while Braveheart is an amazing movie it is not appropriate for anyone under fourteen or so. There is a lot of gore, a rape scene, sex and torture. I don’t think any of that is appropriate for a child her age.

Here’s the real kicker which I feel speaks to our society. Whenever we watch movies that might have inappropriate bits for her she leaves the room and I go with her. What is the one scene she left in? The consensual sex scene between a couple that had been shown to believe in love. We are more comfortable as a society with our children seeing blood and gore than consensual love.

Do I personally think explicit sex scenes are appropriate for kids my sister’s age? No I don’t. However if I had to pick for her to leave during the consensual loving sex scene or the attempted rape scene I’d sure as hell pick the first.

I admit this stung particularly after hearing my parents would never in the near future wont trust me to watch her because of what I might expose her too but they willingly and knowledgeably expose her to this.

I want to iterate that I feel it is equally inappropriate for my sister to know about my job. I would not have her see any of that at her age. When she’s older I will explain everything if I feel it is appropriate but not now. If she were to come visit me she would know nothing and see nothing. However apparently my parents can’t trust me with that.

This is a very frustrating start to my holiday home. I believe my parents are good parents, I’ve always thought so. However, I think they are seriously missing some key points right now.