General Etiquette > Life...in general

Am I on the hook to see this movie? Mentions the Aurora tragedy UPDATE post18

<< < (6/7) > >>

KenveeB:
I feel sorry for Bobby. I've been in the situation of having agreed to go to a movie with someone and turned down other offers, then the person keeps wavering and won't make plans to go OR say they don't want to after all. I think you were "on the hook" because you definitely said you'd take the boys when the movie came out. You obviously weren't up for that even before the shooting, do you owed it to Bobby to let him know you weren't sure when/if you were going to let him make other plans. The shooting gave you an "out" for the conversation this time, but I think you owed him an explanation before that.

lollylegs:
It's funny, I was 12 when the Port Arthur massacre occured here in Australia. This was long before iphones and even, I think, the internet (or, at least, the internet in homes) and I knew all about it. I certainly didn't watch the news or read the papers, so it was just some kind of osmosis. I honestly can't even remember how I knew, but I did.

jaxsue:
My dad was a news hound. Every evening the 6 o'clock news was on (Walter Cronkite, for you boomers). Plus he got the local paper daily and the Detroit Free Press every Sunday. I don't remember not being aware of current events, even at a very young age.

Now I hate being out of the loop, so it's the daily paper and the internet.

Interestingly, some of my siblings (there are 5) don't keep up with current events at all. Not saying that one way is wrong/right, we're just different.

Twik:

--- Quote from: jaxsue on July 27, 2012, 03:15:55 PM ---My dad was a news hound. Every evening the 6 o'clock news was on (Walter Cronkite, for you boomers). Plus he got the local paper daily and the Detroit Free Press every Sunday. I don't remember not being aware of current events, even at a very young age.

--- End quote ---

My dad was the same way. I find it hard to imagine that a 12 year old would not have known about the Aurora shootings, but that may just be based on my own experience as a child.

I do find it odd that people would consider taking a child to see the quite considerable violence in the Batman franchise, but tell them about the shootings simply as "something sad". I understand not wanting to scare a child, but if they're old enough not to be traumatized by seeing on-screen violence (and I'm sure that age varies from child to child), I think reached the age that they can understand that such things can happen in the real world as well.

chicajojobe:
I agree that if a 12 year old doesn't know about the shooting, he is kind of sheltered. I don't mean to offend anyone here, but it's how I feel.
I was 8 when the Oklahoma City bombing happened and I knew about it. Saw some of the first news reports, actually, because I was home sick from school that day and my mom had the news on. Then when I was 12 the Columbine High School massacre happened, and I and everyone else my age knew about it.

If his parents make an issue of it, then apologize and just say you assumed he knew since it's been all over the news. He's nearly a teenager, he's not 6. It's reasonable to think that his parents might not control ALL of the information about the outside world he learns.

I don't think you're obligated to take him to the movie if you don't feel comfortable doing it, but I don't think you need to be irritated with him even if he had known about the shooting. He was excited to see the movie, and everyone reacts to things like this differently. I went to DNR the weekend it came out, because really I just didn't feel like I'd be any more unsafe in a crowded theater now than I would have been the weekend before Aurora. You don't feel comfortable doing the same? That's fine. Everyone deals in their own way.
I don't think anyone was rude in this story, really.

Although I do agree with the don't extend the invitation unless you're really prepared to follow through. Even if he was as American as apple pie and so there were no reason his own dad would be particularly disinclined to go, it seems a bit unfair to say your family will take him and then think 'why can't he ask his own parents to do this?' when he tries to pin down a specific time that you all will be going together.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page