To not let my 11 year old watch Eastenders but..

[seeker]

...to let him watch South Park?

[badtasteflump]

I wouldn't let an 11 year old watch either. If I had to choose, I would let them watch Southpark rather than EE. Southpark is a cartoon, yes with the F word and violence, but it's a ridiculous cartoon.

EE is supposedly a 'real life' drama, with real actors - which makes it much more likely to affect children IMO. And it's shite and the general day to day misery, violence and glorification of general guttersnipes (ooh yes don't we all just love Grant and Phil ) is the reason I stopped watching it about 20 years ago.

And breathe!

[badtasteflump]

BTW now my eldest is now in his teens, we do sometimes sit and watch Southpart together if he's up late on a Friday night or whenever it's sometimes on. And it does make me laugh - sorry Haven't seen any racism myself I have to say.

[seeker]

In what way does SouthPark have more adult themes than Eastenders?

[seeker]

Is it just me that thinks that SouthPark tackles some serious real life issues in a very thoughtful and interesting way?

[LeBOF]

Nothing is ever "just you" in mumsnet, seeker, you should know that by now

Apart from the fact it makes people sound a bit twatty: "Am I alone among this throng of morons in possessing this unique insight?" you very seldom are.

[ButteryBiscuitBase]

It has more graphic adult themes/use of language/adult humour IMO.

[badtasteflump]

What does Buttery?

[frownieface]

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are very very clever with the themes and humor in south park, they use current affairs as a base and often the conclusion is quite moral. If you just see swearing and violence in South Park then you just don't 'get it'.

[Agincourt]

Mine don't watch either but they do watch the simpsons

[Agincourt]

My ten and four year old watch gavin on stacey on dvd. Infact I hadn't even realised but the other day the four year old was debating with the ten years who would be who in G&S and they had both decided they would be Smithy and then they had an argument about who actually was more like Smithy I cringed!

[exoticfruits]

I never let mine watch South Park despite 'everyone does......' Luckily they never wanted to watch Eastenders.

[ButteryBiscuitBase]

Sorry flump I meant southpark does as opposed to enders!

[badtasteflump]

We watch the Simpsons too - some of that is pretty close to the bone but I think it's at least done in a way that goes right over the DCs heads...

[badtasteflump]

Buttery I agree but I think the fact that it's done in ridiculously OTT cartoon format makes a big difference (to me anyway). EE is supposed to imitate real life, which I find horribly depressing.

[seeker]

Actually no, I don't think the "right" school is the most important thing. I thing the wrong school is obviously a mistake. But the right school with loads of additional complications isn't the right school. It's part of a package. For a NT child I would go for an OK school that had a big field and was in walking distance (qs our primary school was before we moved) over a perfect school half an hour's drive away any day.
And before anyone asks, there are schools nearer but one is massively oversubscribed and the other is an outstanding "exam factory" that was so very wrong for ds that I could explain why for a month! Most mumsnetter's idea of the perfect school actually! [that was a joke by the way.]

[ragged]

South Park is as bad.
I let mine watch CSI/NCIS & thought that was pretty reckless on my part.
Have you seen the SP episode where Chef talks all about the clitorus being the key to keeping a woman happy? Do you really want to engage in that conversation with your 11yo?

[LeBOF]

And do they prefer Eastenders or South Park at this school?

[Agincourt]

seeker, what has that got to do with south park? :o rofl

[badtasteflump]

Ragged my son is now mid teens and I am happy to say that he will sit and laugh openly at 'clitoris' jokes and similar on Southpark and other tv shows with us (his mum & dad). I don't think that's a bad thing. But he's not 11.

[ButteryBiscuitBase]

My dd would probably laugh her head off at south park but would ask lots of cringy questions in an outnumbered style way! She asks questions about EE but a lot of it goes over her head as does the simpsons thankfully. As a kid I was pretty much allowed to watch lots of adult tv that was on before 9 and never really questioned anything. So in turn iv always let dd watch soaps and holby city type things. She also loves masterchef and grand designs ans anything with gok wan!

[exoticfruits]

Does an 11 yr old boy actually want to watch Eastenders?

[badtasteflump]

I think the difference is that when I was at school everybody watched EE - Because there were only four channels then . If you hadn't seen EE you couldn't join in on the conversations about it.

IME hardly any children or teens watch much mainstream tv anymore, let alone EE. We (as a family) hardly watch any. The younger DC watch some cbeebies sometimes but other than that the tv isn't usually even on until about 9pm when the younger DC are in bed - and then only if there's something on we specifically want to watch (The Apprentice, etc). Saturday night is the one night of the week (end) that we all sit down together and watch The Voice and then Take Me Out (yes I know it's shite but it's entertaining shite ).

When I was younger, every night was TV night (probably because xboxes and home pcs hadn't been invented).

[OddBoots]

With the vast range of fab telly, never mind all the other things to do, I would put either of them on for my children. This is probably more to do with mine and dh's interests though, neither of us would enjoy either show.

[WorraLiberty]

And tell me about racism in South Park? I may have to reconsider..... All the ones I have ever seen have reflected very sound humane values. Underneath it all!

Lol, I'm guessing you really haven't seen too many episodes have you?

For a start, there's a little black boy called 'Token'

The earlier series weren't as bad but the last few you can tell are just designed to do nothing more than 'shock'.

There have been anti Jewish, anti Christian, anti Ginger and just about anti everything you can think of

I think more adults will like it/loathe it for what it is, but children just might see it differently.

[Bambino81]

There's no way I would let my DD watch south park. It's vile!