Parenting question: approximately what age would should kids first watch these movies?

I first watched The Godfather at 5 or 6

I’d cry crossing the causeway

they see worse in five minutes on tik tok.

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What characteristics would you look for to determine if your kid is mature enough to handle them?

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Are they able to determine what is fiction and what is not? Does things like being in the dark or seeing scary things on TV/movies give them nightmares?

Terminator 2 and Alien are going to be geared towards more mature kids who can handle the content. And probably not for under the age of 10-ish (assuming they're developmentally where they were at).

Maturity level is more of a factor than age.

The kid should be able to identify the difference between fantasy and reality. Important for your sanity, will the movies cause them to have nightmares and come running to your bed.

Start them off with Ghostbusters, Star Wars, Marvel movies, then move to Jurassic Park and Lord of the Rings. I'd save Terminator and Alien for a while - see how they react to the others.

Gremilins, E.T., and countless other 80s & 90s movies can be added to this.

My son handled all the sci-fi movies well, and loves World War 2 history. So this past summer, at 12, we watched Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers and The Pacific together.

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Don’t a helicopter parent

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I certainly agree and have subscribed to the tenets of free range parenting for both of our kids but I would probably keep them from seeing about half of those simply because they are lousy fricking movies.

EDIT - I was wrong. None of them are great.

On a visceral level I've always been disturbed by people getting eaten, and out of these five movies JP definitely gave me the most nightmares as a kid. I would probably save that one for my kids until at least age 10, if not a little older. It's pretty intense for a PG-13 flick. There are some R-rated flicks (Matrix and Speed being two examples off the top of my head) that I would be more comfortable letting my kids watch over JP.

Assuming parental guidance, I'd be good letting them watch T2 and Alien at 12-13. GB and LOTR, 8ish.

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I was wrong. None of them are great.

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Ghostbusters

Jurassic Park

Lord of the Rings

Terminator 2

Alien

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AwgustaDawg

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My 3 year old loves ghostbusters and Jurassic park since he was 2 years old.

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I saw "A Clockwork Orange" at the Starlite Drive In when I was 6 or 7 years old, in my pajamas. Movies and books and music only cause damage when parents are damaged. We watched the movie, went home and went to sleep. Never caused a minute of consternation on anyone's part. Of course that was the early 70's so my parents did not know where I was about 17 hours a day....

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On the flip side, what kind of emotionally detached person can watch something like a Clockwork orange and not be effected by it?

And FWIW, Stanley Kubrick is my favorite director of all time...