Is 'Star Wars' Too Violent for Kids?
If this is wrong, I don't want to be right.Do you ever get the feeling when you're in a room full of parents that you're doing it all wrong? Like yesterday when I was volunteering at our school book fair and the topic of Star Wars came up. Star Wars always comes up at our school because our children are obsessed with it, most likely thanks to their parents. But this time I was in the minority.
Apparently Star Wars is too violent for 4-year-olds. Tell that to our entire kindergarten class, who -- last year as pre-schoolers -- spent every moment of “recess” re-enacting Star Wars. Star Wars mania took over the classroom and my daughter transformed into Princess Leia. My husband and I decided she could watch the very first Star Wars, and we'd put the rest on the back burner until she was old enough to process Han Solo being frozen and able to see through Jar Jar Binks. We thought we were being responsible, then I discovered I was a horrible parent.
Or as one mom to a child who is now my daughter’s age when she first met Yoda (4) put it, "Didn't you think that first scene was too violent for your child?" I don't remember what the first scene was in Star Wars, but she reminded me it involved Darth Vader breaking someone's neck. Okay, so that seems bad. Did I just ignore my usual “no violence” rule due to nostalgia? Sure we talk in our house about make believe and how things are simply not real, but I won’t let my daughter watch violent cartoons. So why is Star Wars okay? Because everyone else is doing it? Because I loved it as a kid and I was 5 years old when I saw the first movie, and hey, I'm okay?
At this point we can’t put the genie back into the bottle, and outside of feeling like a bit of a hypocrite, I’m not worried. After all, every single kid in her class freaking loves Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the LEGOs, the light sabers, the knowledge that Darth Vader is Luke's father. It's all super fun for those kids and none of them seems to be abnormally violent or crazy.
Perhaps that has more to do with the fact that this group of parents doesn't allow violent video games in the console, we all preach tolerance and acceptance, and we all were Star Wars geeks as kids. I hope I’m right and haven't been fooled by a Jedi mind trick. Because my 2-year-old has been clamoring to learn the Force lately, and I don’t know if we can hold him off until grade school.
Do you let your toddlers watch Star Wars?
Piping Hot Posts
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
SMH
Rachel Schiller
About a third of the time my 4 year old wants to be called Luke. During these times he calls me Leia. I think it is adorable. He and his 5 year old brother have light saber battles in the backyard. He has not watched Episode 2 or 3 but he loves Episode 1 and 5.
Tracey Plummer
I can remember being really little and laying on the living room floor with coloring books spread out while my dad watched Clint Eastwood and John Wayne and Superman movies and yes, Star Wars. In fact, we just introduced my six year old daughter to Star Wars a couple of weeks ago and she LOVES it!!!
Not that I want her to watch a bunch of violence on tv, but I do wonder at what point do our kids become TOO sheltered? Is there violence in Star Wars? Yes. Has my daughter's imagination been opened up by this new world controlled by the evil empire and the brave people fighting against it? Absolutely! We've talked about the violence she saw, as well as a lot of different aspects of the movies. The same with Harry Potter. I haven't let her go past HP #4 yet, but only because I think it will be too scary for her. In another year or so, she will probably be ready for that too.
I think you have to judge each child separately to decide what they are ready for, but I also think that keeping them too sheltered isn't doing our kids any favors. Besides, I would much rather her watch something with me than sneak around and do it behind my back at a friend's house. I know I did that more than once when I was little (Nightmare on Elm Street anyone???)...
navywife0204
my girls are total Star Wars nerds, just like their father!! it's up to the parent to judge what they think is appropriate for their children, not someone else. Granted my kids are older than toddler age, but still, I deem what they can and cannot watch, not someone else.
Sidthe
Seriously eventually kids and people in general aren't going to be able to do anything watch anything read anything because it's too "violent" too "dangerous" too "fun". The play ground I grew up playing on didn't have near any of the safety features and guess what I survived the falls the broken bones the splinters from it! Kids are fragile but they aren't that fragile. They can fall and break bones and bounce back a hell of a lot faster than adults. Let kids be kids! And teach them that the violence in Star Wars isn't something they should be trying to use in real life because it's fiction.
fraoch
Parents are bound and determined to turn the next generation of kids into people too afraid of their own shadows. Our grandparents watched tv that was full out violent and lived to tell the tale...why? Because their parents explained it wasn't real. Parents need to parent, not tv.
Lynette
I know kids who are obsessed w/ it and have never even seen the films. Plenty of early readers bks that are Star Wars, and then there is the Clone Wars cartoons. There is no escape when either mom or dad are Star Wars geeks(DH is the geek in our house).
LittleFrogsMA
I saw Star Wars in the theater when it came out and I was five. Like all movies, I think it was probably scarier on the big screen than it is on TV.
I'm not worried.
PonyChaser
My son is 8, he's Star Wars obsessed, but he has only seen the movies once. Only the original three. And he left the room during several scenes: when Ben Kenobi died, when Han was frozen. and he cried when Yoda died. He's a sensitive little guy, and I'm happy not pushing the rest of the series on him, or even going back and rewatching what he's already seen. Right now, he's happy with the Lego version, so we'll stick with that. It's the same with HP, although we read Sorcerer's Stone together. He's just not ready for the movies yet.
I think we need to consider violence in context. Do you remember any blood at all, other than cuts and scratches, in the Star Wars series from our youth (the "first" three)? I remember a severed arm in the cantina that didn't really bleed, and I remember tauntaun guts... but not the kind of blood and gore that exists in movies, and even on TV today. Violence is gratuitous now. Star Wars, even with the battles, was relatively "clean". Only the true "horror" movies back then were bloody and gory and full of nastiness. Now, it's everywhere.
I really don't want my son to see that kind of violence. It's not that he doesn't understand what happens when a knife comes in contact with his skin - he's learning to use a pocket knife. And he's worn his share of band-aids. But the almost gleeful way that violence is included in nearly every cop show and movie is kinda disturbing.
jessicasmom1