Kids these days watch Bluey episodes where the biggest drama is a cartoon dog losing a game of keepy-uppy.
I watched a boy get stung to death by bees after trying to find his best friend’s mood ring. And then I watched her sob over his casket.
No wonder us 90s kids are the most screen-time-anxious generation of parents ever.
Turns out PG doesn’t mean emotionally safe
Our parents didn’t Google whether Bridge to Terabithia was age-appropriate. They just pressed play and left the room.
Charlotte’s Web: they made us bond with a talking spider and then killed her off. In a barn.
They thought Land Before Time was educational because it had dinosaurs. It was actually just emotional devastation in prehistoric form.
Bambi: dead mom. The Lion King: dead dad. Narnia: war, betrayal, child sacrifice… and a talking lion to narrate the trauma.
PG and G ratings, by the way.
I remember in Year 7 History being asked to step out and compose myself because they put Titanic on for the class. I was a sobbing mess and they’d only shown the part where the boat hits the iceberg.
Sorry I’m an empath, Mrs Barnes.
We know how powerful storytelling can be, because it shaped us.
We grew up with no screen time limits and all the emotional damage. Now we limit screen time like it’s sugar, swear words, or asbestos.
Our childhood movies broke us and shaped how we parent
Obviously, we limit it because we know of the health impacts staring at a screen can have on our children.
The access to screens is a lot more plentiful. Back then the only screen was the one in the living room and it was a scarce commodity to get to select what you wanted to watch.
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Today’s shows (Moana, Bluey, Encanto) are built with emotional coaching in mind. They’re gentler. Smarter. Kinder.
And we’re more present. More attuned to what our kids are seeing. We talk about it.
We’ll pause the movie. Ask questions. Help them name a feeling.
I remember my dad taking me to see Bridge to Terabithia, having no idea how deeply it would traumatize me.
He didn’t have Google to check reviews or parenting forums to warn him.
He had no clue his daughter would leave the cinema sobbing or that she’d never look at rope swings the same way again.
He just wanted to see a movie with his kid. It was rated PG. How was he supposed to know?
I love my dad, but he wasn’t the kind of dad who’d sit me down to unpack the emotional symbolism of a cartoon lion dying.
He was more like Chandler from Friends, who once said, “Yes, it was very sad when the guy stopped drawing the deer.”
And honestly? That was the vibe.
One day, I will show my son these movies. Not to awaken my emotional demons, but as a valuable tool to help him explore big feelings in a safe way.
With someone there to help him make sense of it. Rather than saying “it’s just a cartoon.”
I’ll be ready to pause, explain, and let him cry if he needs to. We’ll talk about death, bravery, friendship and why Charlotte’s Web needs a warning label.
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