Awake-Over

The Saturday night thing was an Awake-Over.

Laying the fiendish plan, when I went though the inventory of movies we had out from the library and/or owned, Em offered that one of her guests was not allowed to watch Pirates of the Caribbean because it's PG-13.

I'm, like, 'it is?'



So I started going through the movies I had on hand, things I thought of as 'kid friendly.'

Bruce Almighty? PG-13. Blast From the Past? PG-13...

I didn't have a single PG movie. I had some VeggieTales and whatnot, actual children's fare, but it went straight from there to PG-13 and R.

For the record, there are actually R rated movies I've allowed Em to watch, sort of. Meaning of LIfe, started her on that when she was in preschool, though I still forward through the explicit sex-ed scene and 'find the fish.'



See also movies like Office Space I can't figure they got an R rating. Baseketball, well, okay I know, but that first section with the faux documentary, I practically made Em watch that.



So we went to the library and got a big stack of PG movies. Star Wars (the first one, no confusingly titled as the fourth), ET, Big Fat Liar, Black Beauty, etc.

So then, after all this, the two siblings gave Em the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie as a present. And I figured they'd want to watch it.



When I was a kid, I had a neighbor who was the first kid who got HBO, probably the first kid who got cable on my street. Sleepovers at his house were legendary because you could watch R-rated movies and see boobs and his parents didn't seem to mind even though I knew mine did. As grateful as I am for that experience, I'm determined to not be that house for my kids' friends. Mine is not the house you go to see movies your parents don't allow, the house to drink under age if you'll pretend it's sophistication instead of budding alcoholism, and so on.

So if one of Em's guests is not allowed to watch PG-13, anything with that rating is off the sleepover movie menu as far as I'm concerned.



So when Em opened Pirates III, I called to find out how firm this PG-13 thing was. Well, I had some prior discussion with the Mom in question, while she was evaluating my home to see if her daughter could safely stay there. In the end, she decided that Pirates of the Caribbean was fair game, though the question turned out to be moot when they all got hooked on Groundhog Day.

That and the disco light ball and an improvised game of American Idol with me in the role of Simon (easy, just hate everything and cross your arms) and Barley the Dog-Faced boy as Paula.



I was talking to a co-worker today who indicated that me being a single father, I'd have to have known her for years if she was going to let her daughter stay over.

What a sexist deal, eh? Because I'm a male single parent, I'm automatically suspect.

News flash: this is not American Beauty. And while my dating life is not entirely up to snuff, it's not like I consider my daughter's sixth grade friends as potential girlfriends.