The Simpsons.

[Justbecauseofit]

Just wondered what people thought of this.

So The Simpsons has been a long running cartoon which has been on at around 6pm on ‘general tv’ for a very long time. I remember watching it as a kid myself, it was a normal thing just to be on the tv ‘in the background’ in our home.

A lot of the jokes of course, very political, went over my head, way too young for me to understand. When I was an adult I of course saw the programme in a different light of understanding. But otherwise, it was a common thing for us children to watch on my home and for others at school in my youth, so much I even remember sitting at my friends house and watching it with her family when I went over for tea (primary school).

So my DD is 10. Being a cartoon she’s sat and watched it briefly a few times when nothing has been on and she’s either eating her tea or just generally pottering around.

We have Disney plus, which she’s been watching more. Most recently, I’d say over the past few days she’s been watching the old reruns of The Simpson’s. I noticed the r rating was a 12 - which I didn’t think too much of, some mild sweating which she knows not to repeat but me and my partner sat down to watch with her the other day (it’s been years since both of us watched it!) and was surprised at how much we forgot the inappropriateness for a child of her age!
The swearing and the showing of cartoon ‘butts’ doesn’t bother me, it’s the constant references to sex I didn’t realise exactly how much there was - probably because when I was younger it completely went over my head enough for me to realise what was going on! I cringed at one point at a scene with Ned Flanders and a typical ‘tall sexy blonde’ and as much as she has not asked about sex yet I know she probably has somewhat of an idea, she does okay with older children at school. In my view now, some of the scenes are enough to guess that sex is a thing between adults and it happens frequently.

She has not mentioned anything I’m very surprised she did not turn around and ask what it was.

As much as I don’t usually mind her watching 12 rated things at 10 depending what it is - it had been enough for me to question this so I was wondering what everyone else’s take on it is? Do you or would you let your children of the same age watch it?

The Simpsons has been censored on TV for many years, Disney has the uncut versions. Things like Skinner saying "wankers" and Moe signing on as a sex offender, or Marge realising how good she looks with a handgun tend to be edited out of TV broadcases.

People seem to ignore the fact it's not a kids' show.

does play with older kids that’s was supposed to have read

I've watched simpsons since I was about half your daughters age. Most likely most of the adult jokes will go straight over her head.

I know a lot of things on there can be disguised absolutely fine enough for kids not to clock on. There was a scene where some lady was begging Ned for sex and he was going on to homer about not being ready and feeling pressured and it was descriptive I’m my opinion enough to put my head in my hands and hope she didn’t turn around to me and ask what it was!

At 10 I imagine she’s going to have an idea of what sex is?

I suspect your daughter already knows what sex is, especially if she's in Y6. My kids did sex education from Y1 and I'm 99%certain they knew what sex was by age 10.
It was a few years ago though so perhaps they don't teach it now.
We watch Simpsons on Channel 4 and it's obviously censored. Why don't you let her watch it on C4 instead of the Disney channe?

We have had this exact same conversation! We've been watching it with our 9 year old and had never noticed how much sex is in there. I figure he's only a year off doing some form of sex education at school, so it's a kind of gentle introduction to the concept and there will be a lot of stuff he doesn't get or doesn't realise is sexual.

If the jokes went over your head at that age, what makes you think it will be so different for your daughter?

As others have said, daytime showings are censored anyway.

@Blanketsnpamphlets shes 9, but 10 in a months time so not quite there yet but almost.

She has never asked and she’s pretty open and honest with me usually. She asked me what puberty was this week because that’s what she’s now starting to learn at school, she’s played pretend ‘dating’ games with her step sister before where they pretend to be boyfriend and girlfriend and they have pretended to ‘snog’ (which is a new word in the house recently with them, if me and my partner give each other a quick kiss we are now ‘snogging’) and get married and have babies. She has asked what the word ‘sexy’ means and will use it sparingly as a joke in a very innocent context before but no. She seems pretty oblivious tbh but I think she knows that something must go on. I genuinely believe she doesnt know yet!

I’ve overthought this haven’t I?!

Yeh you’re not alone with this, my son recently got into it age 9, I use to watch it growing up but as I was watching it with him I was shocked at how much they referenced sex, I haven’t watched it in years so had obviously forgotten!

@Swearwolf it’s a lot isn’t it? I honestly never noticed before now how much there was. My partners face was a picture he was mortified
😂
Yes I suppose she will find out soon and it is a gentle introduction to it. Her step sister is 7, they are incredibly close so I think we do tend to see her as younger than she is simply because we see them as a whole.

People say it’s not a kids show but it’s advertised as one, my son has clothes with Bart Simpson on and you can buy toys, I also had a Homer Simpson birthday cake as a child 😬

@Rosebel she has just stared year 5. I think it wasn’t until year 6 where I clocked on and it was the gossip of the playground but then again information is more accessible these days isn’t it

It's fine, come on. You watched it and said you didn't understand any of it yourself at her age. No now of us did! And the jokes are pretty mild anyway. Now if she was watching South Park, you'd have a point.

@PoolNooodle

Yes it was a favourite show as a child I remember. South Park was as well come to think of it. I had the bedding and all the teddies there’s no way I’d let her watch anything like that!!

Wait til she starts watching Friends! My opinion is most of it goes over their heads until they’re ready to know about it.

Hmm, I think your focus is wrong on this one. There are some outdated ideas on The Simpson's that don't really fit with today's society, some of them have been mentioned already, and those I would question.

But just talking about sex I wouldn't be concerned about at all. Your daughter is at a perfectly normal age to learn about sex, and I'd expect the teenage years to be more of a challenge on that front now than they used to be, with young people having much easier access to the internet. A few cartoons mentioning it here and there beforehand is unlikely to do any damage.

@mooongooose

I think that I’ve overthought it that much that I didn’t know whether I was being a shit mum by exposing her too early to that stuff or overreacting. It’s clear from the responses that it’s probably the latter!

She has said she wants to watch a horror film soon… mum can I please watch Annabelle?

Errr… no!!

So I’ve been looking at some not too scary but appropriate ones for her to watch and the best I could come up with was Signs 😂

But alongside that in all honesty I think it's healthy for kids to see things that are bad/naughty etc on tv, as the stuff that is aimed at them is FAR more moralistic and squeaky clean than it used to be. I know the age old "it didn't do me any harm" thing is a bit of a cliche but I do think there's some truth in it, and it helps to build a more balanced and less coddled individual.

It is pretty adult, though as others said much of what was previously screened was edited and many things can go over some kids heads.

Not all kids about all of it though. I'm fairly certain it was Simpsons and something to do with Mr Smithers that resulted in my definitely under 10 self asking my mother how gay men had sex, her responding with "do you really me to tell you, cause I will if you want me to" with an expression I now know meant "but I really don't want to" so I said after a pause "No, I think I figured it out." But then I also grew up watching Beavis and Butthead (even dressed as Beavis for Halloween at 12, my brother was Butthead) so yeah...

It depends on the school when they cover those topics, though they should have their sex and relationship education information on their website (how well that's followed is a different matter). There will almost certainly be some kids at school who broach the topic at some point by now. I was slightly older when it was a big conversation in PE class around who knew what 69 meant.

I have a child who I thought was oblivious, but I've since learned that not all kids ask those types of questions, even when otherwise generally open and honest. They can have a different idea of privacy and comfort levels around topics they view as personal.

At that age, my DS had never asked (and literally left the room if someone else brought the topic up which should have been a clue) and if you asked him where babies came from, he would quote a science documentary about people coming from stardust. It was very cute if a bit concerning at that age.

He did in fact know, he just didn't want to talk or ask about it (this is also the child who didn't ask a why question until he was 6, and that one was out of annoyance than curiosity). He instead went to books, possibly his peers, and eventually the internet. We ended up having to do what he now calls "very thorough" relationship and sex education lessons because he would not ask anything and I could not tell what he knew (& he was home educated so I had to cover the topic in detail anyways which was entirely awkward and I bribed us both to get through it) which I've since done for all my kids before hitting secondary age. Once more and I'm gladly done with that.

@aSofaNearYou yes I understand what you mean, it’s not going to harm her now at this age to have some exposure to it. I still see her and a baby I need to protect at times and as much as I do try and encourage independence and her growing up and I know I can’t protect her from everything I think as a mum you just want to cling on to their youth to stop them growing up don’t you. It’s hard to know where the balance lies sometimes.

My partner is stricter with the girls, the amount of times “she’s still a child” is said in this house, it mainly comes from him rather than me. She’s not got a phone yet, but it’s the plan to get one this year for her birthday as she is playing out on the street at her dads house and I feel she’s at the stage where she will need one for safety. He still thinks it’s too young! We were brought up very differently though.

I will let her continue to watch The Simpson’s and I will prepare for whatever questions come my way

I went on a course about 15 years ago about various things to do with child development and I remember the course leader saying ‘The Simpsons is a great cartoon but it’s not designed for children. It’s not appropriate for under 12s.’ So I never let my kids watch it. The older two are 12 and 13 now and I would be fine with them watching it these days.

Lots of 'family viewing' American sitcoms feature sex, casual sex and sex talk as normal but then film married couples in bed in full clothing at opposite ends of the bed as if its taboo to be in a healthy relationship.

Mine are 11 and 9 and I'm not happy with them watching it. There are better choices for them. And it's not that they don't know about sex, we've spoken about it at age appropriate levels. I don't think they need to see quite so many dysfunctional and unhappy adults yet.

Mine watched it and loved it, then moved on to friends, now that's got some pretty cringe bits in it