Do you do things/activities as a family all together?

[staryeyed]

If so what do you do and how old are your children?

And why on earth feel guilty if your child ate chips at lunchtime?

Feel guilty if your child eats chips every day, perhaps.

How will you cope when your child tells you she is having a lesbian affair with her year 9 art teacher?

helliebean - don't you look at trailers before choosing which film to go to?

I didn't realized you had to have things spelt out quite so exactly anna. I was kind of assuming that asking for the telly in their room was their point of view (remember we are in hypothetical land here. My children have, as yet, never asked for a tv in their room). I didn't realize I had to invent a bit of dialogue to go with this to please you but if you want it here you are:

Hypothetical conversation in fivecandles house:

dd1: Mum, please can I have a tv in my room because I really want one. My friend has got one and so has her friend and her mum said she could have one. And that peculiar lady you talk to on the Internet lets her daughter has let her daughter have a tv in her room so she could watch Keira Knightley get her kit off while eating foie gras. So please, please, please can I have a tv in my room?

me: No.

Is that better for you anna? I really don't think that not allowing my dcs a tv in their room makes me a bad parent or means that I do not listen to their point of view. If your definition of good parenting is that you have to give in to all your child's demands and let them watch Atonement at 3 then that's just dandy. It's not mine.

mum wanted to see it, I liked going to the cinema and she knew I would be gripped

I dont remember anything about it tbh but apparently I sat, rapt, throughout

of course my daughter chooses to eat foie gras (you think I force feed her?)

no anna it's the ducks that are force fed.

you do make me laugh.

i would look at trailers whilst at the cinema... yes of course. But it is gobsmacking to think your 3yo chose to see a film with explicit war and sex scenes. It was your choice not hers. How not let your little girl be a little girl?

Why are you rushing her through life? If she is seeing films like that now, what on earth is she going to be doing when she is older? You are treating her like an adult, and she is not. She is a little 3 year old.

Anna - I think her point was in what context did your small child see a trailer for atonement.
I have been to see more films with my DC's in the past year than I care to remember and Atonement was not trailed at any of them.

I was using the chips thing to illustrate a point anna. It was an EXAMPLE. My point was that even if our kids choose something then whether or not they get that thing is still OUR CHOICE AS PARENTS and our RESPONSIBILITY.

I do hope that my dcs teachers understand the difference between children and adults and recognize that it is illegal to have an affair with their students. So it will certainyl not be ME who feels guilty if she is abused by a teacher.

Please don't tell me you think your dc are capable or making their own sexual choices when they are still children as well.

Personally, I wouldn't take my children to see it - it is a 15 here so they wouldn't get in anyway - much too violent. But I think the judging here is way out of hand.

atonement was trailed during The Water Horse

fivecandles, I think you are tying yourself in knots here!

I repeat - I bet £50 that you AND anna are both loving, kind parents

How did I miss that one.
DS2 has film obsession so I go weekly - or so it seems .
Is Water Horse any good?

I'm actually not disputing that ann is a loving, kind (if slightly misguided) parent. What I am objecting to is not even her parenting style actually. It's her hypocrisy.

pag we all really enjoyed it

Please see above for my observations on being taken to see Romeo and Juliet aged six...

Ooh thanks your honour.
I will look out for the DVD release.
Ds2 always likes me to watch his DVDs with him too and I try to steer him towards one that are not too grim.
TMNT was a particular low, although Mr Bean has a lot to answer for.
On the plus side he was insistent that we got him Pride & Prejudice and Stardust too ...

Good wind up, Anna. This thread has been keeping me thoroughly entertained. Brilliant.

Sorry, this may well be a very undeserved bump but I just couldn't resist.

very intrigued to see that anna replies to some critical comments about the previous Antonment thread by saying 'this is very boring'.

I'm willing to bet her daughter hears that phrase A LOT when she is perhaps being ever so slightly less than receptive to the constant round of 'negotiating' to which she is subjected.

O for a timemachine to fast forward ten years into Anna's household!

BTW Anna I don't think discussing taking a 3 year old to that kind of film is boring at all. I've very much enjoyed this thread. I agree with a lot of what you say but not how you say it, and it certainly doesn't make some of your comments better because they are followed by a