Well, you are both in Florida.
Transformers: Cyberworld, Mecha Anime Bulls for Days
- Thread starter LordGigaIce
- Start date
Well I grew up in Ontario, where were denied the glory of RiD ScourgeWell, you are both in Florida.
So much of my childhood collection came from Eckerd, because we were stuck there while the pharmacist worked so there was no excuse for my mother to rush me.
To this day I will still unpack a figure I get in the car before heading home, just to mess with it a bit. It stems from my mom's YOU'RE NOT TOUCHING THIS UNTIL YOU GET HOME edicts
Why were our mothers like this? If they were trying to save us from this habit it really didn't work.
Moms thought everything popular with kids back then was a corrupt influence.
Just look at all the paranoid mothers who were terrified of their children summoning the Devil just by playing Pokémon. The Satanic Panic was real, and ridiculous. Look up an old video from the '80s called "Deception of a Generation", in which two men try to explain why each and every single major children's toy franchise of the time (including G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, and even Rambo) was inherently satanic. It is laughable at best, ludicrous at worst.
My mom wasn't as bad with that stuff. She didn't think Pokemon or Transformers were Satanic, she was just a bit on the strict side. She had three young kids, and was trying to keep us all under control so looking back it made sense. Still, "YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE TO PICK SOMETHING" and "YOU'LL GET IT WHEN WE GET HOME" clearly had impacts on me.Moms thought everything popular with kids back then was a corrupt influence.
Just look at all the paranoid mothers who were terrified of their children summoning the Devil just by playing Pokémon. The Satanic Panic was real, and ridiculous. Look up an old video from the '80s called "Deception of a Generation", in which two men try to explain why each and every single major children's toy franchise of the time (including G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, and even Rambo) was inherently satanic. It is laughable at best, ludicrous at worst.
spends twenty minutes looking over everything five times in the toy aisles and messes with my purchase in the car before driving home
The most moral panicky she got was banning GI Joes from the house because guns and then taking away my GoldenEye N64 game because she thought it would turn my friends and I into school shooters.
She also thought Batman Returns and Batman Forever were too graphic for me to see in theatres. Batman Returns I get, but Batman Forever? Come on now!
The irony in my case was that watching BTAS was perfectly fine, but MMPR or X-Men were not, despite being way more fantastical (and in MMPR's case, as campy as Adam West Batman) than the more grounded-in-reality BTAS with its gun violence, gang violence, and more realistic darker storytelling.She also thought Batman Returns and Batman Forever were too graphic for me to see in theatres. Batman Returns I get, but Batman Forever? Come on now!
Same. To this day my mom raves about BTAS. I loved Batman as a kid, and watched that show a ton, and my mom enjoyed it. To this day she'll bring it up as one of the best shows we watched when I was a kid. And I'm pretty sure that show had darker subject matter then Batman Forever!
Funny story about my mom. She never let me play Mortal Kombat for all the obvious reasons. Anyway when the Mortal Kombat movie came out a few years ago, I get a call from her randomly. Turns out she had a free afternoon and decided to stream a movie, and decided it would be Mortal Kombat. She goes "it was very fun! I liked it!"
I still don't know how to process that
Oh, not the same for my mom. She's still set in the old "live action is for adults, animation is childish" mindset, despite accepting that there are exceptions, but only a few and they aren't the norm for her.
Ahhhh gotcha. My mom loved BTAS, and looking back it's easy to see why. You could totally get into it as an adult. I don't think she's ever gone out of her way to watch it since, but I was watching it on HBO Max last time I was visiting my folks and she got pretty excited over it.
I think my mom was okay with us watching BTAS because she grew up with Adam West Batman and probably felt "Batman is Batman. No matter the medium, he's just a silly guy in a goofy-looking suit." So, Batman wasn't considered a negative influence.
I always assumed the not opening things in the car thing was a combo of 1) Not wanting shreads of packaging and a million little toy pieces loose in the car to risk 2) the kid loosing something in the car and 3) feeling like the kid was gonna have used up all the "entertainment" distraction inherent in the new toy while the parent was driving instead of it buying some peace and quiet at home. And probably trying (and largely failing) to teach us general self control and patience.
I generally don't bug my kids about this unless it's like a lego mini figure where we have lost the little pieces in the car before or if my daughter has bought a graphic novel because then she can read the whole damn thing sometimes before we get home from the store and that is kinda frustrating when you just paid money for it.
-ZacWilliam, And yes I'll still open my new purchases on returning in the car maybe 50% of the time if I'm with my family but unless it's really large 100% of the time if I'm by myself.
I generally don't bug my kids about this unless it's like a lego mini figure where we have lost the little pieces in the car before or if my daughter has bought a graphic novel because then she can read the whole damn thing sometimes before we get home from the store and that is kinda frustrating when you just paid money for it.
-ZacWilliam, And yes I'll still open my new purchases on returning in the car maybe 50% of the time if I'm with my family but unless it's really large 100% of the time if I'm by myself.
I think 3 makes the most sense from a parent POV, although depending on the nature of the toy (and prior experience) 1 is also likely. But I've definitely heard a sibling be told "you'll be bored of it before we even get home" before, haha. (And in my case it was definitely books, which I'd try to start reading with light from street lamps on the way home.)
Yeah, I love how they argue that these guys who are clearly evil, like that hooded guy with the skull face, actually are evil and... should not be opposed? I guess?Moms thought everything popular with kids back then was a corrupt influence.
Just look at all the paranoid mothers who were terrified of their children summoning the Devil just by playing Pokémon. The Satanic Panic was real, and ridiculous. Look up an old video from the '80s called "Deception of a Generation", in which two men try to explain why each and every single major children's toy franchise of the time (including G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, and even Rambo) was inherently satanic. It is laughable at best, ludicrous at worst.
This makes sense but I never spoke unless spoken to so I don't know what peace and quiet my mother could have been worried about.
With me the "peace and quiet" was more along the lines of "the little nerd's not constantly telling us he's done with this book, can we get some more."
I know that "don't open Lego in the car" became a rule after I lost a piece in the car.
And "don't shoot missiles anywhere besides home" became one after my brother lost a missile from a Batman figure (which we never did find before leaving).
So those always made sense to me.
I had to see the topic of "religion and morality" discussed in non-media contexts before I ever really understood this, but yes, I think that's literally it.
The people who accuse things of being "Satanic" really do object to any concept of morality other than "with us or against us with regard to religion".
In so many cases they don't even get that deep into it. Anything on the surface that isn't echoing the expected status quo is right out.
I joke with a friend I grew up with about how his mom told his dad that my friend was going to go over to my place to play video games. As soon as the dad heard "Street Fighter" he went into a rant about how his kid was going to be turned into a violent rebel and didn't let him go. "Man, I told you we should've bought Street Reading To The Elderly instead" is one of our longer-running inside jokes.
In another case a relative was decluttering and gave me four paperbacks of stories set in an RPG series. I was pretty daunted by just the size of each book (I was barely out of grade school) but the second my mom saw the swords-and-sorcery themed titles and covers (it all happened so fast I never got to take note of the series even), she warned me that those led to devil worship and immediately made arrangements to donate them elsewhere.
(Years later she got me The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy because of the neat title -- I loved explainers and guides to things -- and the goofy grinning hitchhiking planet on the cover. Same peak mom vibes, but with good results this time.)
There isn't even any discussion or investigation, oftentimes, so we don't even get to "is this system of morality akin to the one we subscribe to". The social tide just gives people a list of alleged red flags and it's off to the races. And now of course it's so much easier to get stuck in a particular paradigm.
I joke with a friend I grew up with about how his mom told his dad that my friend was going to go over to my place to play video games. As soon as the dad heard "Street Fighter" he went into a rant about how his kid was going to be turned into a violent rebel and didn't let him go. "Man, I told you we should've bought Street Reading To The Elderly instead" is one of our longer-running inside jokes.
In another case a relative was decluttering and gave me four paperbacks of stories set in an RPG series. I was pretty daunted by just the size of each book (I was barely out of grade school) but the second my mom saw the swords-and-sorcery themed titles and covers (it all happened so fast I never got to take note of the series even), she warned me that those led to devil worship and immediately made arrangements to donate them elsewhere.
(Years later she got me The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy because of the neat title -- I loved explainers and guides to things -- and the goofy grinning hitchhiking planet on the cover. Same peak mom vibes, but with good results this time.)
There isn't even any discussion or investigation, oftentimes, so we don't even get to "is this system of morality akin to the one we subscribe to". The social tide just gives people a list of alleged red flags and it's off to the races. And now of course it's so much easier to get stuck in a particular paradigm.
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Back when I was a teenager, I knew a kid (the son of one of my dad's friends) whose mom allowed him to play games like Grand Theft Auto, but forbade him from watching SpongeBob SquarePants because, to her, it was "too stupid."
That is one of the most backwards cases of overprotective parenting I've ever witnessed. And he was still in grade school at the time, meaning he was the perfect age for SpongeBob, yet it was the M-rated, uber-violent video games that his mom was okay with.
That is one of the most backwards cases of overprotective parenting I've ever witnessed. And he was still in grade school at the time, meaning he was the perfect age for SpongeBob, yet it was the M-rated, uber-violent video games that his mom was okay with.