#67. Editing Pop Culture.

Until she was a freshman in college, my sister in law had not seen the full version of the movie “Forest Gump.” Her father had edited out a lot of the more questionable parts, creating like an “ABC Family Channel” version of the movie that she watched growing up. So in college when she saw Forest Gump she instantly said, “hey, why is Jenny playing the guitar without her clothes on?”

We like to do that. We like to trim and edit and tweak popular culture so that the dirty parts are a little less dirty. And I honestly don’t see anything wrong with that as long as we don’t create kids that can’t handle the world when they find themselves in it. For instance, I went to an all boys catholic high school. When I got to college, in some ways I was socially stunted in how I interacted with girls. They were like creatures from another planet to me. I’m not saying we need to inoculate our kids to the world by exposing them to it, but sometimes what happens is that the people kept under the tightest leashes at home go crazy when the leash is broken at college. I don’t have an answer, just a hope that I’ll be real with my kids and understand that parenting is a balance between protecting and preparing. (That last sentence felt kind of like an after school special moment.)