Some Movies Are Not Appropriate For Children

Regarding the movie "Saw 4" playing in Sebring:
Saw movies are rated R, am I correct?
Saw movies are high is gore, blood, violence and the like, correct?
It is almost overkill at points, right? (no pun intended)

Why in God's name would you take your 3- to 5-year-old babies to that movie?
Why would the theater allow them to enter to watch that movie?

My husband and I were in an almost empty theater room when four teens walk in and get caught sneaking in without paying, so management kicks them out with much argument. We turn to each other and say that it is about time and that was a good thing to see.

Now, not even five minutes later, in walk three couples with three to four kids each, not one over the age of 10. They sit in the row in front of us with their babies with them and the older two boys in front (same age as our daughter I am sure). It looks like we were in the wrong room. Was "Shrek 4" playing? There were more than a dozen children under the age of 12.

Now, my hubby grabs my face and turns it to him, because at this point I am shaking my head like I am ready to scream at these so-called parents. When he makes the zip my lips closed, locked them and he stole the key (like that will shut me up). He whispers that they must be mistaken of the movie, they will be leaving once the first scene is up. I whisper, since that key thing doesn't work very well, "that is the reason why this country/world is so messed up, parents allow their children to see violence like this and somehow they think it is OK. It is not OK."

He agreed and we watch. Those kids were unfazed and watched the entire movie. Parents had not a concern in the world and not one child, be it a 2-year-old or a 6-year-old, hid their eyes. Little baby girls and boys staring at the gore and violence on the screen. Even grandma was with them.

So, please correct me if I am totally not with it, antiquated or too old fashioned for my own good, or maybe just sheltering my child too much, but was that not wrong?

If I was the management of the theater, those kids would have never been allowed to enter, If I were the parents, those kids would have been home.

This is why kids are so messed up and everything is so sick anymore. We, and apparently our children, are numbed by everything we see and it is ingrained into us that it is OK or acceptable to lash out and do these terrible things to each other. Like the lines of reality are terribly blurred.

Maybe the mental and emotional problems kids face and even some adults are not real at all but products of a numbed sense of right and wrong of reality and fiction.

Kids are shooting up the schools and lashing out because they cannot deal with life and teasing and judgments from others, so they take matters into their own hands and do something. You cannot tell me that it is normal, acceptable or just natural, there is a reason for all this rubbish going on and this may be one of the causes.

So I sat there, loving the movie, the twists and turns because as an adult I see past the gore and violence, and see the characters and the people in the story, and understand the message within the film. But I also sit with tears in my eyes and a pain in my heart for these children who were subjected to this; young children who are not capable yet of understanding or reading between the lines.

Reality and fiction are still intertwined. Forever they may be changed and there is no turning back, once you open your eyes to something it is very hard to get rid of what enters, as the eyes are the windows to the soul.

They may just be numb and it may not mean much to anyone else in that room. Maybe it's okay and acceptable for everyone else, but not me, not my baby - not ever. It is not okay and it somehow hurt me deep, the maternal instincts kicked in.

Maybe I am overprotective and too sheltering, but who said that was wrong or a bad thing to be? There is a time and place for everything, this was all just very wrong.

Now we are in our mid-thirties and have a child in grade school. I am very upset over the theater allowing these parents to take the kids to see "Saw 4" yet all management cared about was teens sneaking in management and ushers came in several times but never said anything to the lines of parents with small children. Where is the sense of responsibility?

Jennifer Martinez lives in Sebring.