I was going to pull out an old movie with watch with the kids, and as soon as my eye caught “Old Yeller”, I thought of course!  A great classic!  A boy and his dog!  They’ll love it! But as the day progressed and movie time neared, pangs of Mommy Guilt started kicking in. Because I suddenly remembered, they shoot the dog in the end.  Am I ready to traumatize my kids?  Am I ready for the cries of “how could you do this to us?”  For the nighttime sobs thinking about Yeller saving Travis and then later, as the rabies kicks in, growling at him ready to attack? There are so many movies I want to share with the kids –films I loved as a child.  But sometimes, I forget how old I was when I first saw them.  Like Ghostbusters.  I was 11 not, 7.   And there’s a big difference in appropriateness between 11 and 7.  So I’ve held off on a lot of them.  And for the moment, I held off on Old Yeller too. We ended up watching The Horse Whisperer instead.  I’d never seen it, but trusted friend had given it to me –“ it’s about a girl and her horse” she said enthusiastically . If any of you remember it, then you’ll understand when I tell you that we were ALL traumatized by that one.  How on earth that got a PG rating is beyond me. Annie is PG. Harry Potter is PG. But this?? Not appropriate! But that’s a rant for another day…