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Tot Sauce: Rated R

by Amy Nance

When I was 3, I distinctly remember watching and subsequently being terrorized by the movie Poltergeist. I promise you that my parents were not bad parents. I was actually quite sheltered from movies and TV shows with violence, gore and gratuitous adult situations.

I think maybe they let that one slide because I was just on the cusp of awareness, whereas before the rationale was "she's just a baby, she doesn't know what's going on." Little did they know, it scarred me for life. (Just kidding, mom and dad!)

So now that I have a son of my own, and my husband and I are prone to watching movies and shows that are wildly inappropriate for children, I wonder at what age I need to start worrying about it. Or should I be worrying about it already? He's 7 months.

Incidentally, I also have the mouth of a sailor. It's something that I take great pride in and consider to be a significant part of my self-identity. I masterfully weave profanity into daily conversation with the art and skill of … I dunno … someone who weaves really well. Obviously I'm being facetious, but it has occurred to me that if I don't start locking it up, my son's first word might just be the F dash dash dash word. And as funny as that may seem at first, I'm sure it would lose it's luster quite quickly.

So what do you think, fellow parents? At what age do you need to start seriously worrying about what your kid is watching on TV, and also the filth that can (totally by accident of course) sometimes come flying out of your mouth?

Photo by Flickr member dougbelshaw, used under a Creative Commons License.