How do we choose good movies for our kids?

Last Friday night, my kids wanted to snuggle in together and eat popcorn and watch a movie. Recently we got a nice big plasma TV and had the option to purchase "On Demand Movies." This opens up a whole new world of having movies at our fingertips. While some may say this is an added benefit to making quick family decisions and not having to travel out to find a movie, it does put us in a position to make quick parenting decisions.
My kids range in age from 5-12 so they don't always agree on the choice of movie. The 5 yr old would like to watch some princess cartoon movie while the 12 yr old would like the typical love story/friend saga or mystery movie. Certainly trying to please everyone has ended in our family once we gave birth to our 4th child. The process that we go through is narrowing down some G and PG rated movies. Only within the last 2 yrs have we considered PG movies. The funny part about parenting is that as your kids grow, the standards seem to change. What we let our 5 yr old watch is not what we left our oldest watch at the tender age of 5!
So we flip through the "On Demand Movie" choices on the screen. The downside of the choices at your fingertips is that you have to flip through some of the visually inappropriate choices too. And when I am talking inappropriate, I mean PG-13 these days!
The upside is having many choices. However, for my husband who does not really want to be involved in the choice, this is the time that he heads upstairs to get the goodies ready for the actual movie.
When we started on the journey of allowing some PG movies, I found it hard to choose. The PG that you and I are used to is not the same anymore. In fact, some PG movies from the 80's should be rated R today. Therefore, we need to be careful about those "old movies that we watched when we were kids." Thankfully I must have forgotten ignored some of the language because I was disappointed that Steel Magnolias was quickly off my list for my kids to watch. Good story line...but not worth my kids having to hear the language.
I was excited to come across a great website called www.pluggedin.com. This site is developed from Focus on the Family and is a tremendous resource to parents. You can search for movies (theater and rented) and read full reviews to help you choose.
The categories that they review are: Positive Elements, Sexual Content, Drug/Alcohol Content, Crude or Profane Language, Other Negative Elements, and Conclusion. They spend time watching the movie and breaking down the important elements to help you decide. This site also has reviews for music, TV shows, and games that kids play. While it doesn't have a review for everything out there, we found it pretty stacked and resourceful 95% of the time.


So next time your husband is popping the popcorn and filling up the soda cups, grab your computer and take it to him while you make an informed decision on what your kids will watch. Who knows, you might even learn something yourself.  My kids always say, "Mom bring your laptop down to see if we can watch this movie." Sometimes I wonder if they think my laptop tells me how to parent. Mmmm...might be a blog topic for next time.

Rice and Beans Day 3 and still surviving...yet hungry for popcorn now!