Beak - I took my eldest to see Finding Nemo when she was about 2.5yrs old, it was my first experience taking a child to the movies and I naively just believed all those people that raved about what a great kids film it was. I naively believed that kids films were made for kids! It was utterly traumatic from the very first scene, but even at 2yrs old DD understood that it must be going to come to a good resolution, so for an hour and half she would get up and walk out of the cinema, then turn around and go back in, sit through a little more then leave, then come back, then leave, then come back. We saw the whole thing, apart from the bits when we were leaving and returning.
As if that wasn't bad enough, for the next 9-12 months Finding Nemo was EVERYWHERE. Walking down the street if you passed an electronics store every tv in the window was showing Nemo, everywhere we went it was either playing or there were marketing materials. We were members of the aquarium and went every week, but half of each visit was spent with her hiding behind me and peaking out at the big bank of tvs up above the entrance playing, you guessed it, Finding Nemo (mostly the shark footage of course).
That experience burned us both so badly that I have been extremely strict and careful about movies ever since. We don't watch the news (because I can't tolerate watching the news so I hardly think my kids should be watching it). I try not to take them to movies I haven't seen unless I am very confident of the content, and they watch no commercial TV. I still feel like I let them watch "too much" and yet DDs peers watch all sorts of things I would never in a million years let me kids watch.
And you know what, I am fine with that. When DD9yrs (she of the Nemo debacle) asks "Why can all the other kids in the class see Harry Potter 7, but not me?" I give her the same answer that I do regarding car restraints - "The other parents get to decide what to do for their kids but...[we believe M rated movies are not suitable for 9 year olds]". It's just part of life in our house that we don't let our kids do what their peers are doing simply because their peers are doing it.
DD#2 has been much better at self filtering. She just gets up and wanders off if something bothers her, rather than watching in growing horror. So she has been exposed to stuff that DD#1 would not have been at the same age, but we do still limit anything that we know is inappropriate for her.
