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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

... to think that 'Child's Play' cert 18 is not suitable for the council run club for 5 - 12 year-olds?

48 replies

AlcoPop · 06/08/2011 00:33

DS : I saw a film with Chucky in it.

DW : From the Rugrats?

DS : no the film where the doll comes alive.

me : really, where ?

DS: activator camp

me and DW: [gasp!] Shock

DW had wanted to remove DS from the club earlier in the week due to ragamuffinry from other urchins at camp.

After chiding her for being a bit of a snob as council camp didn't have enough 'Antigones' and 'Chrispins' at it, I am now feeling a little sheepish. Blush

Perhaps they just read the title...

Oh well, that camp's over. Drama next week. Time for a strongly worded letter Angry and a debrief for DS...

Any suggestions for the letter?
In the old days a signed-for letter on a Saturday to the CEO's house was a useful route to the top of the in-tray.
I just need a suitably barbed missive to deliver...

come on ladies, the vitriol committee is hereby called to order.

OP posts:
MadameLupino · 06/08/2011 00:37

Really? Any horror film would be bad, a cert 18 is really slack. Suggest you are Shocked and Dismayed Grin

snippywoo2 · 06/08/2011 00:44

me : really, where ?

why did you have to ask where did you not know where they were/

snippywoo2 · 06/08/2011 00:45

/-?

snippywoo2 · 06/08/2011 00:51

how about my kids saw a film about a doll thats alive they want one where do i said doll from?

Original poster
AlcoPop · 06/08/2011 01:01

I had hoped that there may have been some other place... channel hopping on cable does bring up some delights but also a new aupair and a granny day. Anything can happen on a granny -day!

"where" was Edinburgh Council's Activator Club at Medowbank.

OP posts:
lulu995 · 06/08/2011 01:10

OMG send a letter to the camp and local press, this is really really not on, you expect your kids to be in a safe environment at camp and watching an 18 rated movie is unacceptable.

Lunabelly · 06/08/2011 01:14

Bloody Nora - YANBU, that is beyond not on . WTF were they thinking?

Not only unacceptable, but surely, by facilitating the watching of said film, they were acting illegally and you now question their abilty and suitability to supervise children?

Original poster
AlcoPop · 06/08/2011 01:27

Absolutely. The press would be useful they could also also do the the legwork to corroborate the story. I don't fancy finding bag strap cutting Connor and his lunchbox stabbing pal...

not a safe nurturing environment. but then neither is high school...

OP posts:
sunshinelifeisgood · 06/08/2011 01:59

yanbu, but in saying that chuky is not a horror film :). i would love a chuky doll

PicaK · 06/08/2011 03:56

Christ, I still have nightmares about that film from when I saw it when it first came out!

I'm with you on the outrage - I guess to the "saw" generation it seems pretty tame but i'd be freaking out.

HengshanRoad · 06/08/2011 05:36

I can't believe no-one has remarked on hoe snobby you sound, OP.

whoneedssleepanyway · 06/08/2011 06:08

Hengshan wasn't the OP accusing his wife of being the snob.

I would be livid. Didn't the media try to say there were links between one of the child's play films and Jamie Bulger murder, I would mention that in the letter.

I am shocked.

LineRunner · 06/08/2011 07:03

Shocked, Saddened and Dismayed.

Children's welfare been compromised.

Council staff acting unlawfully, in arranging public viewing of adult material for minors.

Something Must Be Done.

nooka · 06/08/2011 07:16

That link was pretty much made up by the media as I recall.

I'd add in traumatised - your children might be OK but it is the sort of movie that could well give younger children nightmares, possibly for some time to come particularly because of the likelihood of them having dolls in their bedrooms. Someone must have had their brain firmly switched off that day, but you'd wonder what a movie like that was doing at a children's club in the first place. I guess (benefit of the doubt) the title might have confused someone.

EdithWeston · 06/08/2011 07:20

How old is DS?

Stating the bleeding obvious, but do find out if it was actually shown before you blaze! It's amazing what can get garbled.

worldgonecrazy · 06/08/2011 07:25

I don't think you need either vitriol or a barbed response, it just simply is not right for children to have this as an offering at a children's camp. I can't believe that the people running the camp were that stupid and would certainly not be happy leaving children under their care if they were (that stupid).

HoneyPablo · 06/08/2011 07:27

I would speak to the supervisor of the holiday club first. It may be that a child had this as a download on an iphone or a game.
I do wonder about this, as nobody working with children would consider this film suitable for children to watch, would they? Even if they were mislead by the title, the 18 rating and the content would ring alarm bells with someone, before it was shown.

LoveBeingAtHomeOnMyOwn · 06/08/2011 07:29

Having had something to do with a council ran holiday club I am as shocked as the op. I do not think a letter to the chief exec is over the top.

CotesduRhone · 06/08/2011 07:30

In my experience in similar circumstances, I can assure you it is highly unlikely that anyone working with children would show something beyond the rating. So yes, I would check with them first as per HoneyPablo.

And then if it's true I would raise holy hell, as it is Unasseptable Wink

PeterSpanswick · 06/08/2011 07:35

Oooh, a Moral Panic! Wasn't this one of the "video nasties" from back in the day? Certainly remember seeing it mentioned in a lot of news reports, linked hysterically to the Bulger case if I remember rightly.

BalloonSlayer · 06/08/2011 07:41

Go in and talk to them.

Ask to see the film that was shown because your DS "was a little confused about it."

If it is what you think, tell them you will complain and do so.

Then go in with guns blazing. But ONLY then.

If you don't tcheck first and it turns out they saw something else about a doll coming alive, like, oh I dunno, like Pinocchio?, you will look like the worlds biggest and most ridiculous arse and be the laughing stock of the entire council for the next ten years.

rookiemater · 06/08/2011 07:49

If that is the film they saw then that is absolutely disgusting. However as above agree with BS it seems so unlikely that they would show this as a film - surely the whole world knows about this film due to the links - so do check your facts.

I'm from Edinburgh and I'm shocked that they might have shown such a film at Meadowbank. I might have missed it as I don't have my glasses on, but what age range was this and what age is your DS?

SheCutOffTheirTails · 06/08/2011 07:54

I want to be CEO of a holiday club.

How I would laugh when my buttered crumpets and caviar breakfast was interrupted by various letters complaining about the video nasties and porn the children had been watching.

Still, I'd pocket the money from the kiddie chain gangs I was using to do council work for free while I fired hardworking public servants, and I'd think the least the little buggers deserved on their 10 minute break was a proper 18 cert film, not some Disney rubbish.

Booandpops · 06/08/2011 07:55

That's terrible!!! I'd be fuming. If it's true I'd go to the local press. Even the national press! Plus the highest in the council. Were the staff watching it with them?!! If they were it's even worse as they could have switched off if realised it was a mistake. If they left them too it it negligent. Outragous.

EuphemiaMcGonagall · 06/08/2011 08:01

I'd be raging.

DD (9) was at a similar activity camp run by Renfrewshire Council last week, and whereas I was a bit peeved by the babyish DVDs they showed them, I'd have been incandescent if they'd shown her something too old for her age!

Speak to whoever runs the club, then put in a strongly-worded email to the Director of Leisure Services.