To sometimes wonder what my mum was thinking?

[AintNobodyHereButUsChickens]

I was born in '91 to give you an idea of just how young I was.

She used to let me stay up and watch murder shows with her like Jonathan Creek and Midsomer Murders I'd actually go into my primary school the next day and discuss the previous nights episode with the dinner lady who also watched MM! I have an 11yr old and I wouldn't dream of letting her watch either of those shows! She'd also record stuff like South Park and Stressed Eric etc (she watched them herself so she knew full well what they were like!) so we could watch them in the mornings.

There is a particular episode of JC that gave me nightmares for years, I man had (I think) been trapped in a cellar which flooded and he drowned. I still remember the moment they opened the door and he was at the top of the stairs with his arm outstretched, and he was all yellow and waxy looking 🤢

It's only recently that I've begun to wonder what on earth she was thinking! I'm not sure if there's even any point asking her because she'd probably get all defensive and tell me I was attacking her parenting 🙄

Midsummer Murders has always been daytime tv, not nighttime. I used to watch it with my Nan. It was never very graphic. Be thankful you didn't have older brothers that forced you to watch real horror like Halloween/Texas Chainsaw Massacre etc.

I watched A Nightmare on Elm St when I was 11. Gen X, so we were basically left to our own devices.

I watched jaws with my mum aged about 9. I watched Saloms Lot aged about 10. Hammer House of Horror about 11. I don’t watch horror but coped!! With my 11 year old I watched Stranger Things, think that’s quite a bit worse than midsommer murders! I think you’ve had a sheltered life?!

I was very embarrassed to be accompanying a not-quite five year old to I think the third Lord of the Ring film in a cinema. I was deeply embarrassed because nobody else seemed to have four year old in tow and was being grateful he was tall for his age and might look a bit older. He had been nagging me for ages to go and he had a great time.

This had followed on from him and his dad watching this animated thing where somebody got their arms chopped off with an elevator closing on them. My husband was a bit disturbed about all the blood and mentioned this to the three year old who said, "Well, you'd expect a lot of blood if they got their arms chopped off, wouldn't you". My husband told me he didn't quite know what to say to that.

Not surprisingly, he's now a fourth year medical student. He seems to have an inbuilt capacity to ignore gore.

Within reason, I would never have censored my children's viewing of programs. Once when our entire month's fast broadband had been used up by the younger one watching bootleg videos of Sonic the Hedgehog I was a little tetchy.

I was six years old when my parents and I watched Thriller with Michael Jackson…..it had loads of zombies raising out of their graves and was so scary that I was frightened and had nightmares for a few years about it…..I am still shocked that my parents thought that was ok for a small child to watch….

All the kids at my primary had seen things like childsplay and nightmare on elm Street.

Now people let their dc watch squid games and stranger things. I don't let my kids watch this stuff but I know my 12yo got to see an episode of stranger things at a friend's house a while back (it scared him).
I now let 12yo watch Wednesday which has murder and horror elements.

I don't think your mum was abnormal.

Not to mention all the killing that goes on by little kids in fortnite!!

Don't even get me started on the 10/11 yos playing call of duty and grand theft auto. I do try and stick to age rlimits for media but some parents don't care.

Hi @AintNobodyHereButUsChickens

The particular episode of Jonathan Creek you referenced (The Three Gamblers) was one of my favourites. It was first aired in Jan 2000, when you were 8 going on 9?

Having recently re-streamed JC recently, I'm almost certain they all had a PG rating. Perhaps they would have been fine for most children of that age, but not for sensitive ones, including you. Did you ever feel able to tell your Mum you were not enjoying the programme and could you watch something else instead?

You might find it cathartic to re-watch some of the episodes again. In the Three Gamblers, the man you referred to was already dead when the basement flooded. He wasn’t a nice man! Jonathan disarming the fake policeman with a playing card was brilliant.

You know now they’re not real right??

When I was about 5, while watching an episode of casualty, I said I didn't want to be an because I wouldn't want to have to die if my character died. My mum was like WTF?! She reassured me I wouldn't have to REALLY die. I hadn't quite grasped special effects 😂

Actually, I think I was probably younger than that because I definitely watched other stuff where people died at 5 and didn't freak out.

And this is why everyone now is far too precious and offended by everything 🙄

Oh I loved Casualty, everyone at school watched it every week when I was 7. This was when the focus was on the medical stuff and not the staff shagging each other.

It was actually Casualty that made me want to be a doctor! Obviously that wasn’t the only reason I applied, but it was what first gave me the idea aged 7.

Gently, if that's the sum total of your childhood trauma, you're very fortunate.

I watched oranges are not the only fruit when I was 9.

Me too. Also- Columbo.

Ha you’ve just brought back a memory for me op. In primary school we all used to watch Johnathan creek and discuss it the next day! It was very popular. 😬
My mother and funnily enough my nan who was very strict never policed what I watched or read. My mother tended to fall asleep on the sofa and I’d stay up all night watching all sorts! I have a distinct memory of staying up til 2am watching all the Alien films. I think channel 4 had a special alien movie marathon when Resurrection came out. It was released in 97 so I would have been 9.

Funnily enough I was never allowed to watch Chancer, because it had snogging in it (and possibly more, the channel was changed before I could find out!).

But murder mysteries, Jaws, Poltergeist, all totally fine.

I think JC is fairly ok at that age tbh. South Park was probably a bit rude but hardly traumatising.

I was very keen of Aliens, Nightmare on Elm Street and a few others around that age and haven't had any major effects.

I was born in the 70s. I can remember watching 'the gentle touch' when about 7 as i was up ill.. Some man ate a glass bottle as it had his fingerprints on.. I have a very clear memory of him saying " where's your evidence now?" with blood pouring or if his mouth.. thought about it a lot after.. but I also think this happened a lot on the 70s 80s!

when my children were small, I had very idealistic views of what they would watch and what they would be exposed to and it worked well - they lived on Disney videos and happy magical things……. Until the lady in the newsagents mentioned to me that my 7 year old son who was allowed to walk to the shop 5 doors away to collect his ‘beans’ comic had had a very intellectual conversation with her about the Harold Shipman murders and he’d been reading the newspapers whilst there !!!

Jonathan Creek wasn’t scary or traumatising. I can’t watch anything scary or gruesome and I watched it. It was quite a gentle Sunday evening type programme.

Really? JC and MM?
I’d let my 11yr old watch those.

My son is 17 and my lovely pils used to pick him up after school sometimes. He clearly remembers being in their house aged about 6 and seeing a scene in MM where somebody plunged a pitchfork through someone sitting in a deckchair and it came out the other side. This was about 4 in the afternoon. It was scary. Ds wasn't scarred for life though and we laugh about it now as pils were so lovely and prob unaware of the scene.

very simple. if they were before the 9pm watershed (which both of those were) then they are suitable for children. If after, then not.