We walked over to pick our dog up from her friend Beckett's house this afternoon, and peering inside I could see the movie Jaws was on the television. It was the scene where first the dog and then the kid on the raft gets eaten by the shark.
"I was so young when it came out," Heidi said, "I don't really know the movie very well."
I know the movie quite well. I was 13 the summer everyone was talking about Jaws. "Don't go into the water" and "We're gonna need a bigger boat" were catchphrases and punchlines that everybody got. Everybody, that is, except me and my brother and sister. We were not allowed to see PG-Rated movies, and so Jaws was out. That didn't keep us from pestering my mom about seeing the movie, though, and I think when my aunt let my cousins, who were around our ages, go, that my mom decided we could see the movie of the summer, too.
I was excited for all of two minutes until I decided that if I had to wait until I was 13 to see a PG movie, then it was only fair that my brother and sister should have to wait, too. My mother dismissed my complaint out of hand, which shouldn't have surprised me, because we were one of those families with the same expectations and restrictions for all of us, same bedtime, same allowance, same number of chores. Even so, I chose this battle, and I pitched a fit, perhaps the last tantrum of my childhood.
My mother was unmoved. "Either you all go or none of you go," she told me, and it was clear she didn't care which I decided. My brother and sister on the other hand, were furious with me both for jeopardizing the movie AND for making the case at all. In the end? We saw the movie. For me, it did not live up to all the hype, but I liked knowing what the hype was about. I also regretted making such a big deal of the situation, not because I thought I was wrong, but because of the hard feelings.
Life Lesson: Choose your battles wisely.
"I was so young when it came out," Heidi said, "I don't really know the movie very well."
I know the movie quite well. I was 13 the summer everyone was talking about Jaws. "Don't go into the water" and "We're gonna need a bigger boat" were catchphrases and punchlines that everybody got. Everybody, that is, except me and my brother and sister. We were not allowed to see PG-Rated movies, and so Jaws was out. That didn't keep us from pestering my mom about seeing the movie, though, and I think when my aunt let my cousins, who were around our ages, go, that my mom decided we could see the movie of the summer, too.
I was excited for all of two minutes until I decided that if I had to wait until I was 13 to see a PG movie, then it was only fair that my brother and sister should have to wait, too. My mother dismissed my complaint out of hand, which shouldn't have surprised me, because we were one of those families with the same expectations and restrictions for all of us, same bedtime, same allowance, same number of chores. Even so, I chose this battle, and I pitched a fit, perhaps the last tantrum of my childhood.
My mother was unmoved. "Either you all go or none of you go," she told me, and it was clear she didn't care which I decided. My brother and sister on the other hand, were furious with me both for jeopardizing the movie AND for making the case at all. In the end? We saw the movie. For me, it did not live up to all the hype, but I liked knowing what the hype was about. I also regretted making such a big deal of the situation, not because I thought I was wrong, but because of the hard feelings.
Life Lesson: Choose your battles wisely.
Your indignance is palpable and, I have to say, well-founded, though I’d probably have the very same reaction as your mom.
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