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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think parents didn't bother about film certs back in the day (early 90s)

91 replies

19lottie82 · 22/04/2016 11:11

Was watching Pulp Fiction on Netflix last night and have a memory of my dad letting me rent it from Blockbuster when I was 12? WTF? Luckily most of it went over my head I think!

Also remember whenever my friends and I had sleepovers at about the same age, parents happily supplied 18 cert horror movies!

OP posts:

bakingdiva · 22/04/2016 12:12

My mum definitely bothered. She didn't mind me watching a 12 when I was 11, but certainly not a 15 or 18. She was pretty strict, but my friends parents weren't

Indantherene · 22/04/2016 12:16

My dc were born in the late 80s and no way did they ever watch films they were too young for. I can remember huge arguments when we bought The Full Monty because they weren't old enough to see it
Just because some parents were negligent doesn't mean we all were.

vvviola · 22/04/2016 12:18

OTOH I was allowed to read anything I could put my hands on!*

Oh yes, another one who wasn't limited in what I could read (except by the librarian who wouldn't let me go over to the adult section when I had read practically every book in the tiny children's section).

It helped that DM liked to read in the bath, so there were always random books around the bathroom.

I learnt a lot from sneaking her copy of Everywoman too

pigsDOfly · 22/04/2016 12:19

Well yeah, NuckyT Pretty Woman is rubbish, and that's probably another reason I felt it wasn't appropriate.

NuckyT · 22/04/2016 12:21

pigsDOfly

"Offensive in both concept and execution" - that's my quote for the poster ;-)

girlsyearapart · 22/04/2016 12:23

My parents left me in a foreign hotel room when they went down to the restaurant for dinner. They put a film on for me first. I was 9- it was a film about a doll..
The film was Chucky
Mum also let me watch Basic Instinct at 12/13 on the ferry at the cinema there.

chipsandpeas · 22/04/2016 12:24

my mum didnt bother, she rented the videos out for me, all horror when i was still in pimary school

WonderingAspie · 22/04/2016 12:29

I remember my step mum putting on Nightmare on Elm Street in the morning in a room full of children. Youngest was 5, I was 10!

I lived with other relatives. I wasn't allowed to have my ears pierced at age 10 and not allowed to read Just 17 that said sex on the front when I was 15 but distinctly remember watching and being obsessed with Dirty Dancing from the age of 7. Also loved Drop Dead Fred and Grease. Obviously these things go over your head but I did question recently why I was allowed to watch them, I didn't get an answer, they just never bothered to check. I always approve what they let my DCs watch when they stay there now as I don't trust their judgement at all. I didn't even realise until recently that Drop Dead Fred was a 15! I have it on DVD and thought about letting my 8 year old watch it until I realised it is a 15 and there are some slightly questionable moments in it.

I have a couple of friends who don't really care what their DCs watch and don't particularly check the age of films. I'd say i'm quite strict on it but I have let my 8 year old watch all of the Harry Potter films and Jurassic World. Of course he now thinks that all 12s are fine for him to watch and I've said it's a judgment call for me and DH to make.

mayflyaway · 22/04/2016 12:33

mine did!

My dad was very disapproving of Dirty Dancing and they went absolutely ballistic when I watched Lost Boys at a 14th birthday sleepover.

Mousefinkle · 22/04/2016 12:34

My mum bought me beaches and dirty dancing when I was about ten. I innocently took them to my nan's house at the weekend to watch, she wouldn't let me .

I don't think my mum thought anything of them, no. When she was a kid she forced her little brother to watch IT. He's still scared of clowns now.

MrsJayy · 22/04/2016 12:36

I saw a grainy pirate video of texas chainsaw masacre at 10 tbf mum didnt know but friends mum did I had 90s kids and i was really strict with what they watched

ICanSeeForMiles · 22/04/2016 12:36

When I was in first year in high school (so about 12 tops) we had an RE teacher who couldn't give a shit and sat us down to watch Terminator and Terminator 2 most classes of the year. By the end I was immune to the violence but bored to tears of the same film over and over

NuckyT · 22/04/2016 12:37

I watched Jurassic World with my 3 and 5 year old, and they were fine with it (3 year old fell asleep halfway through) - it was a fairly standard 'running, jumping, climbing trees' film, but I was really shocked to see this horrendously violent, protracted death right in the middle of it. Not a 'bad guy comeuppance' either, but a drawn out death of a supporting character, which seemed totally out of place for a fairly bland, inoffensive family film.

Stratter5 · 22/04/2016 12:39

I watched Jurassic Park when it first came out. The film was totally ruined by crying kids having to be taken out of the cinema because they were terrified.

firesidechat · 22/04/2016 12:41

I was bringing up children in the late 80's and the 90's and I certainly took notice of the certification. Not much has changed - some parents care about this sort of thing and others don't.

NewLife4Me · 22/04/2016 12:44

We didn't let our dc watch inappropriate films, neither did their friends parents.
One girl had a sleepover in primary and parents let them watch scream.
It's the only one I heard of and the parents were not very popular at school after that.

Custardcream33 · 22/04/2016 12:47

My Dad didn't care at all. My Mum was very strict when I was prinary age though, nothing higher than a PG. But once I got to 13 or so she didn't seem to mind what I watched though if we were watching something together she would fast forward through any sex scenes!

I8toys · 22/04/2016 12:49

I always remember at my grans house. We have a big family and everyone used to meet on Saturdays. My uncle put Porky's on (or something similar - I remember people shagging in ambulance) - I was a pre-teen squirming with embarrassment.

TotalConfucius · 22/04/2016 12:55

My mother stormed into the front room and switched off An Officer and A Gentleman at a crucial moment. She had her Catsbum Major face on.
My sister was 18, I was 16.
So when I had my children beginning in the 90s, boy, I carried on the tradition.
Mind you, there's still evenings when I want to shoo the teenagers away from Emmerdale or Eastenders.

CakeNinja · 22/04/2016 12:56

Neither of my parents were bothered.
I'm not that bothered either, both the dds watched all of the Harry Potter films at younger than 10 (one by one after reading them a book at a time), didn't check the rating, also the Hunger Games.
Not sure if any of those films I've mentioned have ratings over their age group but they read those books too and have watched them one at a time.
If they suggested an 18 horror film I'd intervene but it's highly unlikely they'd want to!
I pick my battles, and for me, this ones not worth it.

flippinada · 22/04/2016 13:06

ROFL at the notion of the 90s being considered "back in the day". It's not that long ago!

Anyway, it's more down to parenting style and boundaries than anything else. I would seriously question the judgement of someone who puts on a horror film for young kids though. That's really messed up.

ButEmilylovedhim · 22/04/2016 13:17

My mum wouldn't let me watch Police Academy which was a PG at my friend's house when I was 13! I slammed doors and stomped upstairs about that. That was the extent of my 'bad behaviour' as a teen. She still talks about how difficult I was. Not a bloody clue!

LucilleBluth · 22/04/2016 13:41

I agree op. My mum didn't have a clue. We had a local video shop run by what I thought were mexicans (Manchester suburbs, late 80s) but probably weren't. They would let me rent anything, and I did. Porky's, yes, Freddie Kruger, check......I didn't understand any of it but I just think parents didn't grow up with the technology and parenting was far more hands off. It wasn't just me, I remember watching the Doors movie on a pirate at a friends house. We were all at it....I have three DCs, I'm quite chilled but I draw the line at horror.

Nanny0gg · 22/04/2016 14:01

I'm a parent of 80s children.

They still hate the fact that I was extremely strict about what they watched. As far as I was concerned, if they were children they watched children's films and programmes. Adult or grown-up content was not relevant to them.

And I wouldn't do it any differently now.

Catsize · 22/04/2016 14:05

My mum wouldn't let me see a 12 cert film a week before my 12th birthday - it was the first 12 to be a 12!
She may have had a point. I am now 38 and don't like watching 18s.
It really annoys me when parents let my children watch stuff that blatantly isn't suitable (age 4 and 2 but allowed to watch a 15 recently).

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