September 5, 2011: Cheese Pizza Day
Food of the Day: One-Year Goal
Day: #61
Emily and I just passed the 60 day mark, which means we have eaten the food of the day every day for over 60 days. Only 300 days to go.
Cheese Pizza Day fell on labor day — you normally don’t think of cheese pizza and Labor Day together, but why not? Eating the food of the day every day means taking risks and living outside the box.
Emily served cheese pizza for lunch.
Cole and I ate Cosco cheese pizza appetizers.
And on the subject of taking risks, and thinking outside the box….
Cole wanted to see an R-rated movie today, and we tried to devise a hack that would get him into the movie without me.
Movie theaters have really cracked down on admitting teens to R-rated movies — they have to be 17 or attend with an adult over 25. The adult not only has to buy the tickets but is supposed to stay with the teen throughout the movie. Cole talked me into taking him to ‘Stepbrothers’ a few years ago and I still have not forgiven him. He was fine; I still have nightmares. Awful movie. AWFUL MOVIE. Oh, and he had the nerve to say he wasn’t all that comfortable sitting through it with me. . .don’t you just hate kids sometimes? These kind of movies should not be inflicted on Mom’s; Dad’s you are on your own.
In my opinion, the movie rating system promotes lazy parenting. Parents not strong enough to make decisions for their family insist the entertainment industries set rules that affect all families. Movie ratings guidelines should offer information about what you can expect from a movie —and the rating process should end there. The best person to decide which movies are appropriate for a child is the parent . . . and if they end up seeing a movie that their parents would never have agreed to, then the home system needs to be monitored, not the movie industry.
Of course, it’s easier to parent if you can simply tell your kids the movie theater won’t allow them to see R-rated movies until they are 17 unless a parent goes with them. It doesn’t require the parents to think, look at the movie trailers, or read the reviews to make a determination of whether movies are appropriate for their kids.
I always associate cheese pizza with Chuck E. Cheese: Where kids turn into monsters. Kids are entertained with loud singing bears, encouraged to scream and whine endlessly for tokens to play flashing, noisy video games, and they serve cheese pizza that tastes like cardboard. In my opinion Chuck E. Cheese deserves an R rating! Cole only went a couple times when he was little, and he always left exhausted, overwhelmed, and dirty. Some parents never consider letting their kid see an R-rated movie, while other parents shield their kids from Chuck E. Cheese. It’s all about choice.
Cole is researching the movie rating rules, and then I hope he will gather other kids together with the support of their parents to challenge them. I did a quick google search, and wasn’t surprised to learn the strongest groups currently influencing the movie rating system are religious zealots. The same groups predicting the end of the world, believe homosexuality is against god and country, and line the streets with photoshopped abortion posters, want to tell parent’s what movies are acceptable for their children. Give Me Strength.
I will now climb off my muse and give you a chance to share your thoughts. Odd Loves Company, so I hope you will leave a comment about cheese pizza, movie ratings, or awful movies your kid’s have made you sit through…
♥
Kb
Could not agree more. The rating board does not reflect my views. Some PG-13 movies make me cringe; while some R rated movies are well done, entertaining and reflective. Stepbrothers would not fall into that category. The ratings should be a guideline the final decision should stay with the parents. Tell Cole our family is with him all the way.
Ok when he pulls together a petition we will ask you to sign it! Thanks for the support!
I like the rating system and the rules. Nothing wrong with waiting to see an R movie until your older. Kids growing up much to fast. Some parents don’t get it. I do.
Well then Randy you should follow the ratings why are you so committed to me following the ratings? And why do you assume that you get it while some parents don’t. It’s possible to have different opinions and still get it.
I went to a birthday party for my nephew at Chuck E. and you are so right it was awful I agree with you about ratings it’s all about choice. David took me to see Stepbrothers and it was just so endlessly stupid. He knew he owed me big time when we left.
Off to read El Morno.
Being made to go Chunk E when you don’t have children is cruel and unusual punishment and should be taken up at the next UN conference. Stepbrothers….I thought it was awful but Cousin Carla and the my men folk thought it was very funny. Choice!
I have always been a little out of sync with the “Mom-fia” in my area about what makes a movie appropriate for my kids to see. I didn’t care what the movie was rated I did not allow my kids to see what I considered excessively violent movies. Even when these movies were framed in a historical or artistic way I felt that they were not okay for my kids to see. However, language and sex were never taboo for me. Since I spent a lot of time at their schools I knew for a fact that there would be nothing said in a movie that they didn’t hear at school. As for the sex part, all I can say is that it opened the door for many frank, honest, and informative discussions. My theory was that my kid could hopefully spend their whole life without seeing someone be shot, strangled, raped, dismembered, tortured, or abused so I would shield them from that as long as I could; they were going to hear bad language and they were (hopefully) going to have sex one day so we may as well talk about the boundaries and expectations regarding those things and a great was to introduce talking about that was movies
BTW I thought Stepbrothers was funny. I think a lot of those movies are funny.
Of-course you found stepbrothers funny :-). Your points are well taken. It’s a matter of choice and each family should have parents strong enough to make those choices…and if they don’t I suspect the an R rated movie is not ever going to the ‘real’ issue.
I haven’t cross that bridge on the R rated movie yet, so far Tyra is still happy with Tinkerbell so we’re okay. Now we do take her to chuck e cheese though… 🙂
Your picture of think outside the box is funny!!!