Finding room for Nemo

Some of you may know I’ve signed up for an email group for mothers living in Hoboken. Usually it’s informative, but sometimes I get some real comedic gems, like one email I received last week. A mother was traveling to North Carolina by car and was looking for some appropriate movies to show her 2½ year old to keep her entertained. Just as I was about to type “Finding Nemo” into a response I read on to see this: “Never realized how terrifying Finding Nemo is until you see it through their eyes”

What? We’re talking about a two-year-old right? I know the mom dies at the beginning of the movie, but they don’t show it. Maybe that’s scary for a five year old, but a two year old? The whole movie is like watching a fish tank to them. Ali loves it and when we go to the aquarium she just yells NEMO! The whole time, it’s precious.

What’s wrong with people? If you’re afraid of Disney movies you’re probably not going to get far in life. I once babysat a young kid who wasn’t allowed to watch TV at all and his mother only let him watch Lord of The Rings because it was his favorite movie. His mother was quite the hippie, she would leave the air conditioning off in the summertime while I was babysitting and made me journal with him in the oppressive heat. His mother took him to go see Inconvient Truth and he came to me the next day discussing the difference between gas and electric stoves … he was six.

 I’m all about “live and let live” but we live in a social world filled with pop culture. If you can’t talk Britney Spears or sports with people you’re probably going to have no friends or social skills. All this poor kid could talk about was L.O.T.R. All his mom had to do was let him watch the marathon on TNT three times in a row and he wouldn’t be able to watch it again for a minimum of 6 months; she would know that if she watched TV.

I’m not promoting couch potato-ry (as I sit on my couch with the TV in the background as I write) but kids need to be exposed to life. If you shelter them and only let them see what you want they will end up playing alone with their replica Sword of Narsil (Even though your babysitter told him not to because he will end up cutting his arm off). So maybe Finding Nemo isn't the worst thing that could happen to a toddler.