Let's do the time warp.....again!

In our house, I think we're stuck in a massive time-warp. We listen to a lot of the Beatles, Beach Boys, Monkees, and many others from the 60's and 70's. (My 6-year old daughter even sighs and pretends to faint at the first verses of "Daydream Believer." What can I say? I loved him too.--R.I.P. Davy Jones) My son is an aspiring drummer and will practice alongside pretty much anything from 1963 through 1979. I find it incredibly funny when my kids recite an old Bill Cosby stand-up routine circa 1966. Yeah, it's 46 years old, but it's classic and not much is funnier than your six-year old talking about the Chicken Heart that ate New York. Watching TV is another time-zapped activity. We do watch some Disney Channel and Cartoon Network, but mostly it's movies and DVDs of old shows. Both kids love Knight Rider and The Dukes of Hazzard and other shows of the 70's and 80's. I rememer liking them, but after seeing them again after 20+ years, I am reminded of how, they really were pretty corny. I'm not entirely sure what caused my obsession with Johnny Gage of "Emergency" to raise its stunningly handsome head, but we've been watching a ton of those episodes lately as well. It helps that I now have all the episodes on DVD. :) A few nights ago my 9 year old son forwent his usual after-dinner tradition of watching America's Funniest Home Videos in favor of a few M*A*S*H reruns. He'd never seen M*A*S*H before and was instantly fascinated. I considered whether to allow him to continue watching. It's essentially a comedy, but it was set during the Korean Conflict, so it naturally contains some gore as well. I remember watching M*A*S*H when I was a kid, though I can't recall how old I was. Is nine too young to see surgeons "operating" on wounded GIs? Should he be exposed to gunfire and shelling, even if it is just pretend? After some thought, I decided to let him watch it with me. I make no secret of my age. Everyone who knows me well knows I am 40...ish. I like this age and have no intention of becoming a(more)crotchety old thing, but I admit, television makes me cranky. I should say, modern television shows make me cranky, while the shows of my youth make me nostalgic for a bygone era. I'm pretty picky about what my kids watch, read and listen to. I suppose my parents were too, but honestly, I don't know if there was as much to worry about 30 years ago. Yeah, 70's TV had lots of cop shows, more than a few babes in bikinis and some smooching between characters, but that was pretty much it. When I was little, the most "violence" on a kid's show was when Mr. Moose released a thousand ping pong balls on Captain Kangaroo's head. Nowdays, Mr. Moose would probably let loose with a semi-automatic rifle or a hand grenade! The original "Super Friends" of my youth was vastly different from the revamped "Justice League" that's marketed to kids now. I promise I am not channeling Tipper Gore here, but some of the newer stuff should really come with a parental warning! (Not kidding, one Batman episode contained an implied suicide by gunshot.) Pretty sure Batman and Superman never dealt with that in the 70's and this kind of scares me. Believe me, with all the children I have contact with as a Children's Librarian, I see more than my fair share of kids who could benefit from a strong dose of Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood! I've never been a fan of treacly sweet kids' shows, so Barney and the Teletubbies are strictly verboten in our home, but as long as a show is funny, fairly intelligent and well-written, I'm certainly okay with an underlying moral message. (Be nice, kiddies! Be helpful and kind! Share! Don't be rude! Don't fart in front of Grandma! You know...the basics.)I know how old this makes me sound, but boy, YOU try finding a recent kids show that DOESN'T make the parents look like morons. I have enough of a challenge just trying to raise kids who won't maim each other over the last cookie. I don't think we need the message of "Your parents are idiots, pretend to listen and then do whatever you want behind their backs" to be running in a continuous loop in their brains before they even turn five. We'll have more than enough of that when they're teenagers. I guess the truth of the matter is that I just really miss the time when there didn't HAVE to be so much policing of the television and radio. I'm honestly not a "helicopter mom" and I really do try to let my kids have as many adventures as my nerves can handle. Is my intense filtering of what my kids are exposed to turning them into hopeless social outcasts? It hasn't happened yet, as they both have a great group of buddies who I enjoy having in my home, and I look forward to them all growing up together. So, my family and I are climbing back into our time-machine, setting it on 1964 through 1987 and settling in for a nice, safe ride into adulthood-- I hope. Bon Voyage!