Fathers Beware!

I picked up my kids for the summer this past weekend and my life is now focused on everything but the news, so I really have nothing to post about in the political or current events area. It has been so long since I did the father thing on a full-time basis, I had forgotten just how different the world seems with them around. My life this week has been about Power Rangers and Animal Planet, the sound of children laughing, and two little ones cuddling up next to me and whispering “I love you Daddy”.

So this is just a post to warn other parents about a current movie that requires special attention. I have always been a Marvel comics fan and my favorites have always been the Fantastic Four and Iron Man. So naturally I was very excited about the new Iron Man movie release. My 8 year old son and I had planned for weeks that one of our first father-son adventures would be to go see the movie without any girls around to ruin the movie for us. I did not bother to check the ratings or anything because Iron Man is a comic book hero directed to the youth audience. Imagine my surprise when in the opening minutes of the film was a rather explicit sex scene. No, there was no real nudity, but there was no mistaking the activity for anything else. I cringed as I watched and hoped my son would not notice (pretty stupid hope actually). After the movie, I asked him how he liked it and he said it was okay, but there was one part he thought “was inappropriate for children”. I of course knew immediately what he was referring to and agreed with him.

Now if an 8 year old can figure out what is not appropriate for children, then why did Marvel films not figure that out? I am not speaking here as an old fuddy-duddy, because my 8 year old had the same opinion. Why ruin a perfectly good super-hero movie with a damn sex scene! And why can’t I take my kids to see a kid’s movie without having to worry about such nonsense?

So fathers, use caution before taking your son to see this one.