Take Paul’s example of showing Star Wars to his 10-year-old. I bet a few years from now the film will still be special… but if he had shown the film at age 4 or 5, an age at which you retain very few memories, I bet by age 10 Star Wars would have been “just another film.”

My kids are one and two, but my husband and I had this discussion a couple of years ago when my brother-in-law showed the movie to my then three and four-year-olds niece and nephew. They loved it then and love it now, but we will NOT show our kids Star Wars until they are MUCH older.

Why would you want to turn Star Wars into a “little kid” movie by showing it to them before they can appreciate it? The fact that nearly everything will go over their heads is not an excuse to let them watch it, but a reason to wait. You risk turning it into “a movie for babies” that your kids will not want to watch when they reach an age where it is appropriate.

1. We have Winnie the Pooh books, but only one plush Pooh.
2. We have a wooden Thomas the Train railway set, but have never watched the TV show.

The Muppet Movie and Star Wars will have their day, and hopefully I won’t be buying any action figures or plush Muppets.

We do have the Electric Company DVD’s. She’s too little to understand (and I don’t let her see much TV), but I’ve seriously enjoyed watching the DVDs and reliving my childhood.

There are segments of Electric Company that have Spiderman. That’s how, at 5,6,7, I knew who he was- I had no siblings, and I didn’t read any comics other than Archie and Richie Rich.

I knew all about Spidey though.

But the biggest issue is my son’s desire to “belong” — not only to what his friends are doing and seeing (i.e. he hadn’t seen Spiderman until just last week when he watched it at a playdate with a same-aged friend), but also what we, his parents, are interested in. We eagerly awaited the arrival of Book 7 of Harry Potter last summer and he was dying to see the movies, which I insisted had to come after reading the books. So he’s now read Books 1 and 2…and I’m holding off on Book 3 until he turns 8. It’s hard for me to hold out but I really firmly believe that some things are best kept until older!

Then again, my husband decided that the kiddo was old enough for The Karate Kid this weekend. That was our rainy Father’s Day morning activity…watching the movie.

Here’s my issue: we have been (up til now, I suppose) incredibly strict about these things with #1. What about #2, and #3…they see things that I consider to be already far beyond their years just because of their big brother! What do you do about that….!?

P.S. Last thought: We actually debated whether or not to introduce Star Wars as Ep 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3…or 1,2,3,4,5,6….we never really made a decision since we decided he couldn’t see 2, 3 until older. The debates of Fan Parents.