A night at the movies

I got carded last night to get into an R-rated movie. Seriously?? The guy at the ticket stand asked for both Tony and my IDs when we asked for tickets to Watchmen. We both just looked at each other, dumbfounded. I said to Tony, "is he kidding?" as we pass the licenses to him. The guy fires back, "you both look really young" as he checks the dates out. As he passed my ID back to me, he says, "I thought you would have been 16." I muttered, "Uh...thanks?"

I frequently get told that I look young, but I didn't know what to say to being likened to someone almost ten years younger! Sometimes it gets really frustrating. I get carded all the time, but it's often more than people just doing their job. My license has been questioned as a fake more than once because I look older in my license pic (taken four years ago with short hair) than I do now. Hopefully, looking younger will be a blessing for me several years in the future!

On another note, I really do not understand the parents who take their young children to R rated movies. I'm not talking about the parents who are trying to get a night out with a baby who sleeps through the entire movie but parents who take children that are old enough to be aware of adult situations but too young to fully comprehend them.

We saw a man in the movie with two young boys - probably six and four - and we just knew that the movie was going to be way too adult for them. Watchmen had lots of nudity, an attempted rape, a graphic sex scene that lasts over a minute, a slew of f-bombs and other four-letter words, and pervasive violence/gore. One guy had his arms cut off with a circular saw, and another was whacked in the head multiple times with a butcher's knife! I had to turn away a few times, and even Tony cringed some. After the movie was over, we both turned to each other to say, "I can't believe that guy brought those kids!"

Now, I'm obviously not a parent, so I can't judge that man's decision to bring those kids. I just don't understand it. What makes someone think that a child that young can handle seeing those kind of things or that a child should see those things? I just don't know sometimes, but what I would like to know is how those little boys slept through last night - and the next few...