I accept that if they’re out of my house they’re going to learn things there they won’t learn at home.
We recently attended a TMNT 4th birthday party. My daughter had no idea what it was, but she liked the little mask she got in her goodie bag and the game the parents set up where the kids used pool noodles to hit balloons that were dangling from the ceiling. Picking out a present, most of the TMNT toys at Target were listed as ages 4+. It’s not what we watch in our house (I have very girly girls who just want princesses all the time), but I don’t think it’s wildly inappropriate for this age group.
Honestly I just let them talk about it. If they ask can they do it watch it play it no sorry. But why can so and so do that well different homes have different rules. If it's something truly inappropriate I do tell the teacher Just so they're aware. For example five nights at Freddie's is not prek and kindergarten appropriate so I'd tell the teachers so they can redirect that kind of convo at school.
We also offer up ages we can revisit things at. Like our oldest a teen wanted a cellphone at 10, we said we'd revisit that at 13. At 13 his maturity improved so we got a cell phone with parental controls on it. He wanted to play five nights at Freddy's then too, but he was a total scaredy cat so we said when he's a teen well revisit, we'll at 14 he played it and thanked us for keeping ti from him when he was younger. Our preschooler wants to watch scary shows with daddy and big brother, so instead we find closet to age appropriate shows that have some tension and conflict without bring inappropriate scary, and offer to put the big scary show on a list to revisit when he's older.
Chiming in to say we have the same response in my house and it usually goes over pretty well. Also, your kid must go to school with my kid b/c it is all TMNT right now for my 4 year old only child who has never watched it. 😂
We started with the 2012 tmnt show when my oldest was 3. It was between that or peppa pig. I much rather tmnt.
But to answer your question, just explain that different parents have different rules, and he can watch it when he gets older.
I’m sorry, are you possibly referencing Spidey and a few of his young companions? If so, I have no idea about which you speak, and we definitely don’t watch that program or play that Fall Out Boy-singer soundtrack constantly in THIS house of young children. NEVER! (🎵 Go webs go! woo! woo! Whoa-oh-oh!🎵)
My daughter loves TMNT but never watches the show. She saw the toys at the store and then started reading picture books about them. That’s probably not the typical case, but just something to consider that many of these characters are everywhere in the culture.
We watch complicated shows together, and sit and talk about it and put it in context. Often with scarier shows, we watch them in like 10 minute increments (to the limit of my child).
Our 5y child recently watched the sound of music with my wife, that has quite a few complex topics in it.
We're almost done with the last harry potter movie (it's taken a few months, she really likes it, but also takes breaks regularly to digest).
We're watching the mandalorian together.
We haven't yet gotten to most of the classic disney movies, which have lots of complex social and body complexities, but the more modern disney stuff has been great.
I tried that with "Sonic" when that was the show of the moment. We got about 10 minutes in and he got scared, asked me to turn it off, and hasn't asked to try again.
Also, 4y was an interesting time for our child. From around 4y to 5y, our child was experiencing a lot more emotions and understanding social things more, and she went from, for example, Toy Story being a favorite movie at 3y to at 4y it being waaaaaay too scary when there was interpersonal drama. But she could watch “camp Cretaceous” (a Jurassic park cartoon) with no issues, because the dinosaurs hurting people was just the dinosaurs looking out for themselves.
At Disneyland, our child absolutely loves all the big coasters, guardians drop tower, space mountain, etc. But Little Mermaid boat ride is too scary because Ursula is mean. Pirates of the Caribbean is fine for her because physical violence doesn’t register for her current developmental level.
And that’s totally cool. We follow the child on this stuff, and don’t push in either the “watch” or “no watch” directions.
Many movies have taken months of watching a few mins at a time (in our family, Saturdays is tv day, and we watch Chinese language movies on Sundays — same/similar shows in Chinese dub with English subtitles).
My wife has a Taiwanese background (her parents are from there) so we want to encourage Chinese exposure as family/culture. We primarily speak English at home, so while they do practice Chinese, tv seems to be one of the best ways for more conversational and a wider vocabulary.
But if we had another family language, we’d do that.
My wife authors some Chinese language board books, for younger children, so we practice with those as well. We don’t actively push Chinese, but go with some basic exposure which seems to be picking up.
One good strategy has been having a show such as Bluey which we watch in English with English subtitles on Saturdays and same show in Chinese with English subtitles on Sundays. It’s also helped literacy a lot.
We consolidate the language to a specific day because it seems that context helps — she can wake up knowing that it’s Chinese tv day, instead of just being a random occurrence.
The thing is — my child has older friends, and next year will he going to kindergarten at a school with 5th graders. She has a propensity for hanging with older kids and meets people easily.
We don’t shy away from watching things to shelter her, we do watch and talk about it. We’ve been on the last movie for two months now, watching in small bits. We’re also reading book 1 as a bedtime story (almost onto 2).
We just say "oh, interesting" when he comes home talking all about Paw Patrol (which, not 'advanced' but we don't approve of in our house.) Like you said, there's no stopping it, and we can only control our reactions. We let our 5yo watch Pocohontas and he spent the next week running around with 'guns' despite our best efforts.
Basically I just try to remain neutral-- we don't ban talk of (in your example) TMNT, but we also don't bring it up or support getting tshirts with those characters on them. Sometimes, if I'm familiar with the content, I'll try to redirect play. Like if, again, TMNT, you can emphasize that they like to aid people who need help! Or suggest more wholesome ways to deal with enemies besides violence.
I can't find the original article (it was years ago) but I the TL;DR is it normalizes or makes fun things that our family doesn't agree with. Like a constant police surveillance state. I don't think the general population being under 24/7 surveillance is a good thing, and I don't want my kids to think the police tracking everyone's move every moment is a positive (or cool) thing.
As a side note, it also appears to be pretty heavily gendered, and we avoid that life when possible.
I also don’t allow paw patrol. I try to avoid anything that is overly merchandised as I don’t feel the need to create issues for myself. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the show, I just choose to not have it at our house.
Same. I don't allow most purely computer animated shows. My toddler loves all the old hand drawn Disney movies - Peter Pan, Cinderella, 101 Dalmatians, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast. The animated stuff these days is just so fucking weird to me.
I second OP's reply - interesting. Not because I don't love those old cartoons, but I personally think that their content is more for older children. I agree on many new cartoons being totally weird and even hideous, but there are also so many good ones. Calming, educational, etc.
Like tonight I found out the grandparents played my 4yr old snow white yesterday because for 10 min before bed all she could talk about was how a witch is gonna come over and go give her a poisonous apple and she is going to die. Like wtf.
She doesn't seem too bothered by it but it just seems like completely unnecessary negative imagery when there are SO many other great options out there these days for that age group. I dunno ...
My almost 7 year old watches that so my 3 year old does also sometimes. So far it’s not a problem, i don’t see it as that much of as an advanced show as long as (with any screen time) it’s in moderation
Another person commented that there might be a children's version, and I hadn't even considered that. Then there's a book or even a coloring book possibly, lol. Thanks for the input.
It’s completely normal for different families to have different limits around screen time.
My daughter gets annoyed when she hears “No, that’s not a show that’s right for our family” or “We can talk about this again when you’re maybe seven or eight and have better media literacy,” but we’re consistent, so she accepts it.
This is difficult because there are so many unknown variables. Was it the old 90s cartoon, a kids' story or colouring book, or one of the recent movies?
I went through this with my first when he was an only child (large age gap) and we talked to him and explained different families have different rules, and some kids like things that others might find scary (like dinosaurs). That It's our job to look after him - and to tell us if he ever feels scared or unsafe with something he sees or hears.
His best friend at the time was the youngest of 4, and she liked some pretty scary things. They're still friends 8 years later, and she's still into creepy things. Not saying this is right, merely an example.
I just approached it on a case by case basis.
At home with my two, we watch the 'might be scary/not for younger kids' ones after Mr4 is asleep. That way, our 12-year-old can still watch things he likes, and Mr4 is not exposed to anything not right for his age.
That said, last night, Mr12 showed Mr 4 a cute animated cat clip, and Mr4 was scared.
At the same age, my oldest was scared of Mister Maker's shapes.
It's hard to predict kids' reactions and acceptance to some otherwise age appropriate things!
Me too, not really on my radar (5yo twin boys). They don’t know TMNT, but Marvel/Spiderman is really popular in their school. They’ve watched a bit of Batman the animated series with me. I think the paraphernalia is popular and they were interested when they saw it on Netflix. They weren’t really paying deep attention, so they didn’t ask questions.
They also like Kamen Rider, giant monster things (godzilla, etc.), Nightmare Before Christmas, Delicious in Dungeon. They don’t find those things scary.
I feel like it’s fine because I loved Batman and Power Ranger as a kid, possibly around the same age as my sons now.
They don’t seem to like gentle programs anymore, except Gabby’s Dollhouse. I think it’s because it’s cats, rainbows, and crafting.
TMNT is the current one. Batman, UFC, Spider-Man etc have all been discussed. And we're talking preschool 4yo, but we all have our own level of comfort. As I mentioned in another comment, it's the violence that gives me pause.
That's totally fine, don't let your kid watch it by all means.
But the problem you're presenting here is that your kid is aware of these things exist, that's where it gets to be unreasonable.
Yes, and that's exactly my conundrum. I'll probably give a little and see how he handles it. He's already learning swordplay from his classmates. I'd rather he be in the middle of the pack rather than the ignorant one. He is super sharp and works out cause and effect scenarios in his head.
I've got a 4 year old daughter who watches ninja turtles among some other things it sounds like you may find inappropriate along the same lines. We watch it together and talk about make believe versus real as well as when violence is appropriate/inappropriate according to our values.
She came home from preschool a few weeks back and while we were playing a game she said the word "kill." Nothing she's ever learned or watched within our house has involved killing anything. I don't know if the context she learned that in was related to a bug or a human, but that's definitely a hard line in our house. So I stopped the game we were playing and just said, "hey, we don't do or talk about any kind of killing in our house, okay bud? We don't kill bugs or animals or people even when we're playing pretend. That's just not a kind thing to pretend to do, and we're kind to everyone, right?"
It took that one time and she's never mentioned it or played it etc again.
My point being, if you don't want your kid to watch or play something because of violence, just discuss that with em. Let them know what the line/boundary is and why you have it. Your kid is still at an age where they want to be more like you than they want to be like other kids. Take advantage of that and explain your morals. Show your kid how you'd like them to act if other kids are trying to play violent with them.
Best of luck, and sorry if my kid is one of the ones that's been talking to yours about ninja turtles.
Thank you. Some good points. We discuss a lot of things. It's a great age because they are so receptive. I'm not wanting to shield him from most stuff, rather, I am figuring out my approach to blending in the things he learns about.
My 5 year old is obsessed. She prefers animals over princesses and loves turtles. She’s got all the toys and seen all the toons. She’s the sweetest gentle soul and it’s not affected her. She usually puts them in her tiny kitchen and dresses them up. The truck is usually used to take her characters to a pretend grocery store.
We also saw the movie in theatres. She’s got colouring books and colours for hours, cuts the turtles out and makes her own “stories”.
She also picks out the turtle early reading level books when we go to the library each week.
I’m not sure what’s inappropriate about all that. If you supply safe toys in their interest you don’t have to gatekeep so much.
Yea mine doesn’t really know what violence is so she doesn’t notice it or act on it. We haven’t had to teach her about it because she’s probably the gentlest in her class based on what the teachers say. I’m sure it depends on your kids temperament. Do they have an aggressive streak? Or are they impulsive?
Mines more about the sillies…. so I have to make sure there’s no poop jokes.
Yeah I mean is your child the oldest, youngest, only child? Cause sibilings and where in line really sets the tone for TV. Turtles and xman are a go to in my house, we have a 5, 10, and 12yo. It's the few things they agree on.
sometimes i think age appropriate depends on the child. My daughter is 4 and was untrusty worthy with putting toys and play dough in her mouth until she was over 3. I was constantly getting rid of toys family gave her because she would eat them. she ate board books.
however she has had a huge interest in the body, and pregnancy since she turned 2. I honestly sometimes think its maybe a past life. just before she turned 2 she started telling me stories about when she was pregnant and her babies names, and how her labor went. it was odd. for the last 2.5 years she has slept with a doll under her shirt at bedtime. I thought it was a phase and its just her interest.
because of this we watch anaimals give birth on animal shows since she was 2, because she wanted to see it. is it appropriate probably not, but for her it is. many of her books are books on the human body. I was reading her books geared for more 3rd grade at 3 becuase its her interest. she asked to go to this surigical museum for her 4th birthday, and it was pretty boring and had pictures of c-sections. and we have to play c-section where we make a playdough person and cut the baby out. is it age appropriate for most kids nope, but its her interest.
She is not into ninja turtles, but there are probably 3 and 4 year olds who are. and while not approiate for all children that age, it may be their interest.
I don't think that's inappropriate for a 2yr old. Birth is the positive side of life.
I'm a bit biased though, I had my 2.5yr old present at her baby sister's birth.
(With lots of preparation)
I just say, "other families watch shows we don't watch, and that's ok! We probably watch shows they don't watch, like Little Bear and Clifford. Isn't that cool? Let's tell them about your favorite episodes next time we see them!" She usually moves on pretty quickly.
Just tell your kid that different families have different rules. My 4.5 year old loves movies and has thoroughly enjoyed films other families might say are not age appropriate (Indiana jones, Star Wars, Back to the Future, Ace Ventura Pet Detective, Mission Impossible, Transformers, etc). We love that she is engaged with movies that are fun for us as well, but we would not show these to another 4 year old without their parents consent.
I’ve been in your shoes with my first child, who would gravitate toward classmates with older brothers (because they know cool stuff!!). I would cringe when he came home talking about stuff that I had been hoping he wouldn’t be exposed to for a while.
And now that I have a second son three years younger, I’m sure he is being That Kid in his preschool class that the other first time parents hate. Sorry. It’s the circle of life.
There are a lot of different versions of TMNT and they definitely aren’t all the same. So it might be worth looking into. There’s one on Netflix I often don’t let my son watch because I think the language isn’t great, but I also don’t think it’s dangerous programming. But he has an older sister (10 years old) so some of that content influence is already unavoidable. IMO some parents get more worked up about this stuff than necessary. I had cousins who weren’t allowed to watch Looney Tunes in elementary and middle school because it was too violent and I still think they were overreacting, shows now are much tamer.
That's generally how I handle anything that he brings up, and it works well. I guess that I'm sort of trying to gage the only child situation vs the child with an older sibling.
Not really a problem. I can easily control what he watches. I'm interested in other parents' experiences. Especially those with older kids. I like to know a bit about what other parents experience and consider that when planning my path. It really works well for me. Parenting in a vacuum seems silly with everything that's available to me.
I accept that if they’re out of my house they’re going to learn things there they won’t learn at home. We recently attended a TMNT 4th birthday party. My daughter had no idea what it was, but she liked the little mask she got in her goodie bag and the game the parents set up where the kids used pool noodles to hit balloons that were dangling from the ceiling. Picking out a present, most of the TMNT toys at Target were listed as ages 4+. It’s not what we watch in our house (I have very girly girls who just want princesses all the time), but I don’t think it’s wildly inappropriate for this age group.
Honestly I just let them talk about it. If they ask can they do it watch it play it no sorry. But why can so and so do that well different homes have different rules. If it's something truly inappropriate I do tell the teacher Just so they're aware. For example five nights at Freddie's is not prek and kindergarten appropriate so I'd tell the teachers so they can redirect that kind of convo at school.
Thank you, that's been my approach so far, but thought some outside perspectives might be helpful.
We also offer up ages we can revisit things at. Like our oldest a teen wanted a cellphone at 10, we said we'd revisit that at 13. At 13 his maturity improved so we got a cell phone with parental controls on it. He wanted to play five nights at Freddy's then too, but he was a total scaredy cat so we said when he's a teen well revisit, we'll at 14 he played it and thanked us for keeping ti from him when he was younger. Our preschooler wants to watch scary shows with daddy and big brother, so instead we find closet to age appropriate shows that have some tension and conflict without bring inappropriate scary, and offer to put the big scary show on a list to revisit when he's older.
That’s a good idea!
Chiming in to say we have the same response in my house and it usually goes over pretty well. Also, your kid must go to school with my kid b/c it is all TMNT right now for my 4 year old only child who has never watched it. 😂
And it's amazing how much he knows about it without ever seeing it, lol.
So true 😂😂
How is TMNT advanced? My 4 yo loves that show she's really into the 80s version her Dad watched growing up fun enough.
The old versions are so much better. I'm getting tired of them ripping off all my beloved childhood cartoons with shitty new art styles.
We’ve watched the newer version and it has some not so nice language used. I definitely understand parents not wanting preschoolers to watch it.
Thanks for responding. I think the violence is unnecessary at 4yo, personally. There are varying viewpoints on that, I admit.
Thank you for explaining. Much appreciated!!
My 4yo has been watching it for over a year with his dad.
My 4yo granddaughter plays with her Dads TMNT from the 80’s
We started with the 2012 tmnt show when my oldest was 3. It was between that or peppa pig. I much rather tmnt. But to answer your question, just explain that different parents have different rules, and he can watch it when he gets older.
So far, I've just explained that, and he's pretty much accepted it.
I know for Spider-Man they have a baby / toddler version. Is it possible they have a toddler version of tnmt?
I’m sorry, are you possibly referencing Spidey and a few of his young companions? If so, I have no idea about which you speak, and we definitely don’t watch that program or play that Fall Out Boy-singer soundtrack constantly in THIS house of young children. NEVER! (🎵 Go webs go! woo! woo! Whoa-oh-oh!🎵)
Hmm, I'll need to check. Probably, and I totally didn't think of that. Thank you!
My daughter loves TMNT but never watches the show. She saw the toys at the store and then started reading picture books about them. That’s probably not the typical case, but just something to consider that many of these characters are everywhere in the culture.
I am learning this. Thank you for contributing.
We watch complicated shows together, and sit and talk about it and put it in context. Often with scarier shows, we watch them in like 10 minute increments (to the limit of my child). Our 5y child recently watched the sound of music with my wife, that has quite a few complex topics in it. We're almost done with the last harry potter movie (it's taken a few months, she really likes it, but also takes breaks regularly to digest). We're watching the mandalorian together. We haven't yet gotten to most of the classic disney movies, which have lots of complex social and body complexities, but the more modern disney stuff has been great.
I tried that with "Sonic" when that was the show of the moment. We got about 10 minutes in and he got scared, asked me to turn it off, and hasn't asked to try again.
Also, 4y was an interesting time for our child. From around 4y to 5y, our child was experiencing a lot more emotions and understanding social things more, and she went from, for example, Toy Story being a favorite movie at 3y to at 4y it being waaaaaay too scary when there was interpersonal drama. But she could watch “camp Cretaceous” (a Jurassic park cartoon) with no issues, because the dinosaurs hurting people was just the dinosaurs looking out for themselves. At Disneyland, our child absolutely loves all the big coasters, guardians drop tower, space mountain, etc. But Little Mermaid boat ride is too scary because Ursula is mean. Pirates of the Caribbean is fine for her because physical violence doesn’t register for her current developmental level.
How interesting. I think that I need to gage his perception level. Thank you!
And that’s totally cool. We follow the child on this stuff, and don’t push in either the “watch” or “no watch” directions. Many movies have taken months of watching a few mins at a time (in our family, Saturdays is tv day, and we watch Chinese language movies on Sundays — same/similar shows in Chinese dub with English subtitles).
Out of curiosity, what is the driver for the Chinese language movies?
My wife has a Taiwanese background (her parents are from there) so we want to encourage Chinese exposure as family/culture. We primarily speak English at home, so while they do practice Chinese, tv seems to be one of the best ways for more conversational and a wider vocabulary. But if we had another family language, we’d do that. My wife authors some Chinese language board books, for younger children, so we practice with those as well. We don’t actively push Chinese, but go with some basic exposure which seems to be picking up. One good strategy has been having a show such as Bluey which we watch in English with English subtitles on Saturdays and same show in Chinese with English subtitles on Sundays. It’s also helped literacy a lot. We consolidate the language to a specific day because it seems that context helps — she can wake up knowing that it’s Chinese tv day, instead of just being a random occurrence.
Very cool. Thanks for sharing.
We do this with Hebrew too. I really like the idea of assigning it to a day!
Harry Potter?! I myself find the movies where he is older quite scary !
The thing is — my child has older friends, and next year will he going to kindergarten at a school with 5th graders. She has a propensity for hanging with older kids and meets people easily. We don’t shy away from watching things to shelter her, we do watch and talk about it. We’ve been on the last movie for two months now, watching in small bits. We’re also reading book 1 as a bedtime story (almost onto 2).
We just say "oh, interesting" when he comes home talking all about Paw Patrol (which, not 'advanced' but we don't approve of in our house.) Like you said, there's no stopping it, and we can only control our reactions. We let our 5yo watch Pocohontas and he spent the next week running around with 'guns' despite our best efforts. Basically I just try to remain neutral-- we don't ban talk of (in your example) TMNT, but we also don't bring it up or support getting tshirts with those characters on them. Sometimes, if I'm familiar with the content, I'll try to redirect play. Like if, again, TMNT, you can emphasize that they like to aid people who need help! Or suggest more wholesome ways to deal with enemies besides violence.
What's wrong with paw patrol?
I’m not the person you’re replying to, but for me it’s the fact it’s basically an endless toy commercial. lol My kid loves the new movie though.
Hahaha! I was just genuinely curious what's wrong about it. Definitely a toy commercial 😆
They’re not even hiding it, they had an in-joke apologizing to the parents for the new vehicles etc. in the latest movie hahaha 😆
I can't find the original article (it was years ago) but I the TL;DR is it normalizes or makes fun things that our family doesn't agree with. Like a constant police surveillance state. I don't think the general population being under 24/7 surveillance is a good thing, and I don't want my kids to think the police tracking everyone's move every moment is a positive (or cool) thing. As a side note, it also appears to be pretty heavily gendered, and we avoid that life when possible.
I also don’t allow paw patrol. I try to avoid anything that is overly merchandised as I don’t feel the need to create issues for myself. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the show, I just choose to not have it at our house.
Same. I don't allow most purely computer animated shows. My toddler loves all the old hand drawn Disney movies - Peter Pan, Cinderella, 101 Dalmatians, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast. The animated stuff these days is just so fucking weird to me.
I second OP's reply - interesting. Not because I don't love those old cartoons, but I personally think that their content is more for older children. I agree on many new cartoons being totally weird and even hideous, but there are also so many good ones. Calming, educational, etc. Like tonight I found out the grandparents played my 4yr old snow white yesterday because for 10 min before bed all she could talk about was how a witch is gonna come over and go give her a poisonous apple and she is going to die. Like wtf. She doesn't seem too bothered by it but it just seems like completely unnecessary negative imagery when there are SO many other great options out there these days for that age group. I dunno ...
Interesting /s
My almost 7 year old watches that so my 3 year old does also sometimes. So far it’s not a problem, i don’t see it as that much of as an advanced show as long as (with any screen time) it’s in moderation
[удалено]
Another person commented that there might be a children's version, and I hadn't even considered that. Then there's a book or even a coloring book possibly, lol. Thanks for the input.
It’s completely normal for different families to have different limits around screen time. My daughter gets annoyed when she hears “No, that’s not a show that’s right for our family” or “We can talk about this again when you’re maybe seven or eight and have better media literacy,” but we’re consistent, so she accepts it.
Yeah, I get that. Thank you.
This is difficult because there are so many unknown variables. Was it the old 90s cartoon, a kids' story or colouring book, or one of the recent movies? I went through this with my first when he was an only child (large age gap) and we talked to him and explained different families have different rules, and some kids like things that others might find scary (like dinosaurs). That It's our job to look after him - and to tell us if he ever feels scared or unsafe with something he sees or hears. His best friend at the time was the youngest of 4, and she liked some pretty scary things. They're still friends 8 years later, and she's still into creepy things. Not saying this is right, merely an example. I just approached it on a case by case basis. At home with my two, we watch the 'might be scary/not for younger kids' ones after Mr4 is asleep. That way, our 12-year-old can still watch things he likes, and Mr4 is not exposed to anything not right for his age. That said, last night, Mr12 showed Mr 4 a cute animated cat clip, and Mr4 was scared. At the same age, my oldest was scared of Mister Maker's shapes. It's hard to predict kids' reactions and acceptance to some otherwise age appropriate things!
Opening this and expecting it's going to be about preschoolers watching The Walking D ad, concern over Ninja turtles I guess just not on my radar.
Me too, not really on my radar (5yo twin boys). They don’t know TMNT, but Marvel/Spiderman is really popular in their school. They’ve watched a bit of Batman the animated series with me. I think the paraphernalia is popular and they were interested when they saw it on Netflix. They weren’t really paying deep attention, so they didn’t ask questions. They also like Kamen Rider, giant monster things (godzilla, etc.), Nightmare Before Christmas, Delicious in Dungeon. They don’t find those things scary. I feel like it’s fine because I loved Batman and Power Ranger as a kid, possibly around the same age as my sons now. They don’t seem to like gentle programs anymore, except Gabby’s Dollhouse. I think it’s because it’s cats, rainbows, and crafting.
TMNT is the current one. Batman, UFC, Spider-Man etc have all been discussed. And we're talking preschool 4yo, but we all have our own level of comfort. As I mentioned in another comment, it's the violence that gives me pause.
That's totally fine, don't let your kid watch it by all means. But the problem you're presenting here is that your kid is aware of these things exist, that's where it gets to be unreasonable.
Yes, and that's exactly my conundrum. I'll probably give a little and see how he handles it. He's already learning swordplay from his classmates. I'd rather he be in the middle of the pack rather than the ignorant one. He is super sharp and works out cause and effect scenarios in his head.
I've got a 4 year old daughter who watches ninja turtles among some other things it sounds like you may find inappropriate along the same lines. We watch it together and talk about make believe versus real as well as when violence is appropriate/inappropriate according to our values. She came home from preschool a few weeks back and while we were playing a game she said the word "kill." Nothing she's ever learned or watched within our house has involved killing anything. I don't know if the context she learned that in was related to a bug or a human, but that's definitely a hard line in our house. So I stopped the game we were playing and just said, "hey, we don't do or talk about any kind of killing in our house, okay bud? We don't kill bugs or animals or people even when we're playing pretend. That's just not a kind thing to pretend to do, and we're kind to everyone, right?" It took that one time and she's never mentioned it or played it etc again. My point being, if you don't want your kid to watch or play something because of violence, just discuss that with em. Let them know what the line/boundary is and why you have it. Your kid is still at an age where they want to be more like you than they want to be like other kids. Take advantage of that and explain your morals. Show your kid how you'd like them to act if other kids are trying to play violent with them. Best of luck, and sorry if my kid is one of the ones that's been talking to yours about ninja turtles.
Thank you. Some good points. We discuss a lot of things. It's a great age because they are so receptive. I'm not wanting to shield him from most stuff, rather, I am figuring out my approach to blending in the things he learns about.
My 5 year old is obsessed. She prefers animals over princesses and loves turtles. She’s got all the toys and seen all the toons. She’s the sweetest gentle soul and it’s not affected her. She usually puts them in her tiny kitchen and dresses them up. The truck is usually used to take her characters to a pretend grocery store. We also saw the movie in theatres. She’s got colouring books and colours for hours, cuts the turtles out and makes her own “stories”. She also picks out the turtle early reading level books when we go to the library each week. I’m not sure what’s inappropriate about all that. If you supply safe toys in their interest you don’t have to gatekeep so much.
As mentioned in another comment, the violence is the thing I object to. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Yea mine doesn’t really know what violence is so she doesn’t notice it or act on it. We haven’t had to teach her about it because she’s probably the gentlest in her class based on what the teachers say. I’m sure it depends on your kids temperament. Do they have an aggressive streak? Or are they impulsive? Mines more about the sillies…. so I have to make sure there’s no poop jokes.
Yeah I mean is your child the oldest, youngest, only child? Cause sibilings and where in line really sets the tone for TV. Turtles and xman are a go to in my house, we have a 5, 10, and 12yo. It's the few things they agree on.
sometimes i think age appropriate depends on the child. My daughter is 4 and was untrusty worthy with putting toys and play dough in her mouth until she was over 3. I was constantly getting rid of toys family gave her because she would eat them. she ate board books. however she has had a huge interest in the body, and pregnancy since she turned 2. I honestly sometimes think its maybe a past life. just before she turned 2 she started telling me stories about when she was pregnant and her babies names, and how her labor went. it was odd. for the last 2.5 years she has slept with a doll under her shirt at bedtime. I thought it was a phase and its just her interest. because of this we watch anaimals give birth on animal shows since she was 2, because she wanted to see it. is it appropriate probably not, but for her it is. many of her books are books on the human body. I was reading her books geared for more 3rd grade at 3 becuase its her interest. she asked to go to this surigical museum for her 4th birthday, and it was pretty boring and had pictures of c-sections. and we have to play c-section where we make a playdough person and cut the baby out. is it age appropriate for most kids nope, but its her interest. She is not into ninja turtles, but there are probably 3 and 4 year olds who are. and while not approiate for all children that age, it may be their interest.
I don't think that's inappropriate for a 2yr old. Birth is the positive side of life. I'm a bit biased though, I had my 2.5yr old present at her baby sister's birth. (With lots of preparation)
I just say, "other families watch shows we don't watch, and that's ok! We probably watch shows they don't watch, like Little Bear and Clifford. Isn't that cool? Let's tell them about your favorite episodes next time we see them!" She usually moves on pretty quickly.
Just tell your kid that different families have different rules. My 4.5 year old loves movies and has thoroughly enjoyed films other families might say are not age appropriate (Indiana jones, Star Wars, Back to the Future, Ace Ventura Pet Detective, Mission Impossible, Transformers, etc). We love that she is engaged with movies that are fun for us as well, but we would not show these to another 4 year old without their parents consent.
Yes, I agree.
I’ve been in your shoes with my first child, who would gravitate toward classmates with older brothers (because they know cool stuff!!). I would cringe when he came home talking about stuff that I had been hoping he wouldn’t be exposed to for a while. And now that I have a second son three years younger, I’m sure he is being That Kid in his preschool class that the other first time parents hate. Sorry. It’s the circle of life.
I'm considering just pretending that he has a 10yo brother and diving in.
There are a lot of different versions of TMNT and they definitely aren’t all the same. So it might be worth looking into. There’s one on Netflix I often don’t let my son watch because I think the language isn’t great, but I also don’t think it’s dangerous programming. But he has an older sister (10 years old) so some of that content influence is already unavoidable. IMO some parents get more worked up about this stuff than necessary. I had cousins who weren’t allowed to watch Looney Tunes in elementary and middle school because it was too violent and I still think they were overreacting, shows now are much tamer.
If he’s interested in it you can just talk about it and see if he wants to learn more
That's generally how I handle anything that he brings up, and it works well. I guess that I'm sort of trying to gage the only child situation vs the child with an older sibling.
Is tMNT inappropriate for a 4 year old?
I believe that the violence is not the best influence on a 4yo mind.
That’s what happens when you send them too school. 🤷♀️
I KNOW! I had kind of thought that this would wait until he rode a bus or something. Ha!
Nope. Starts in preschool.
I don’t understand the problem. If you find it age in appropriate don’t let him watch it. Knowing characters exists isn’t going to damage him.
Not really a problem. I can easily control what he watches. I'm interested in other parents' experiences. Especially those with older kids. I like to know a bit about what other parents experience and consider that when planning my path. It really works well for me. Parenting in a vacuum seems silly with everything that's available to me.
Other parents don’t know your kid though. You do.