Mothers of America
let your kids go to the movies!
get them out of the house so they won’t know what you’re up to
it’s true that fresh air is good for the body
but what about the soul
that grows in darkness, embossed by silvery images
and when you grow old as grow old you must
they won’t hate you
they won’t criticize you they won’t know
they’ll be in some glamorous country
they first saw on a Saturday afternoon or playing hookey
they may even be grateful to you
for their first sexual experience
which only cost you a quarter
and didn’t upset the peaceful home
they will know where candy bars come from
and gratuitous bags of popcorn
as gratuitous as leaving the movie before it’s over
with a pleasant stranger whose apartment is in the Heaven on Earth Bldg
near the Williamsburg Bridge
oh mothers you will have made the little tykes
so happy because if nobody does pick them up in the movies
they won’t know the difference
and if somebody does it’ll be sheer gravy
and they’ll have been truly entertained either way
instead of hanging around the yard
or up in their room
hating you
prematurely since you won’t have done anything horribly mean yet
except keeping them from the darker joys
it’s unforgivable the latter
so don’t blame me if you won’t take this advice
and the family breaks up
and your children grow old and blind in front of a TV set
seeing
movies you wouldn’t let them see when they were young
When I was younger, one of my friends had parents who would not let them watch rated R movies whatesoever; something that I found strange because that was never an issue at my house. As a parent, I can only imagine how dificult it must be to know when to draw the line and when to let your kids go out on their own. How to be a person they can trust and talk to like a friend, but still someone who can “protect” them. However, we cannot always be protected, and everyone has that classic loss of innocence moment– all that is different is how and when it happens.
In a way though, I don’t really like the tone of this poem all that much. Maybe it’s just my interpretation, but it sounds like you should let your children run wild and do whatever they want so they don’t hate you. I mean, you need to let your kids make their own mistakes, but what about the children, what if they are not ready for what the world really is? Do we just throw them to the wolves and hope for the best??
I guess it is for the best because I do not think children should be sheltered in their rooms/yard from the outside world; it’s like censorship on a different level. Perhaps if every child had a supportive family to come home to after the movie, they could deal with such an experience better because they would have someone to talk to, someone to ease the transition. Maybe what bothers me in this poem is that there does not seem to be that supportive family, the tone is: get your kids out of the house for yourself and so that they won’t be mad at you for not letting them go (which sounds like an excuse to get them out of the house to me). I am still largely undecided, should we just let kids go off on their own, protect them to a point, wait til we think they are ready? Hopefully someday I will have an answer I fully believe in.
i think that idea of when to let go of your child and let them experience things for themselves differs from parent to parent and child to child. it really depends on the personal experiences that are had