Boys Are Back

Last night I went into town after a lazy day, to meet Erin and Alissa, at Kino for the premier of Boys Are Back, with Clive Owen.

An Aussie made movie, with a British lead, this film is shot primarily in South Australia, and takes in fairly remote farming and vineyard properties, and way of life. The film shows a father's challenge of dealing with the grief of the loss of his partner, and the challenge of getting to know, and learning how to care for his school aged son. His son from a previous marriage, (not Ron from Harry Potter film fame, but surely his twin, or cousin at least!), comes into the equation, to really test the man's ability to rear and love.

I think one of the key themes for me was the parenting style on display. Joe's approach to parenting was to let the boys live, and thus, his motto was 'just say yes'. Meaning the house was always a mess, the boys could do as they pleased 90% of the time, and then the kids also had the freedom to do anything - like ride on the bonnet of the 4WD as Joe spend along the beach.

Many of these scenes challenged your ideas, and the modern day way of cautious child-raring. Careful about getting dirty, don't touch bugs and plants, watch out for germs, don't climb up on there, clean your teeth morning and night religiously. The notion of contemporary fear driven rules for kids today usually leads me to laugh at any friend of mine, not allowing their child to do what we all did without a care in the world when we were 5. Eat dirt, ride bikes without a helmet, wade out deeper than we know we should.....

Do we really need to be so careful? Has the world changed for the worst, this quickly? Is injury risk limiting today's kids of exploring the world properly? What kids of people will this give us, 20 years from now?