He whined about and my S/O said “we went to legoland for you, this is for us adults” which is fine, but that didn’t stop him from whining about. 

Immediately jumping into teacher mode, I pulled out my notebook and a pen and I said “hey, every time we stop to look at a painting for a while, I want you to draw it.” He didn’t draw a single picture. I showed him how to do it, still didn’t draw a single picture…but he also stopped whining. He couldn’t complete the task, but his focus was taken away from “I don’t want to be here” and was transferred to “what does this image look like? how can i draw this”

EVEN PARENTS ARE SUPPOSED TO ENCOURAGE RESPONSIBLE READING/VIEWING BEHAVIOR. NOT filter everything ahead of time for their kid.

When my kiddo was 5, his pediatrician was asking him the usual Well Child Visit questions (“What are your favorite foods? What do you do to get your body moving? Do you know what to do if you get lost in a public place?” Etc.) and she asked, “What do you do if you see something on TV that scares or upsets you?”

I piped up like, “Oh, he doesn’t watch TV without one of us in the room,” which was true at the time and is still largely true now. She said, “Yes, but that won’t always be the case, so make sure you’re talking to him about what to do if he sees something that upsets him.”

So we started talking to him about that, and the answer is simple: “Turn it off or leave the room, and talk to someone you trust about what you saw and what you’re feeling.”

The answer is NOT “Ask your parents to make sure you never see anything upsetting again,” because that’s just not possible — and ultimately that would be doing the kid a disservice, since sooner or later he’s going to be out in the world where we can’t control what he watches or reads. That doesn’t mean we don’t try to make sure he’s watching/reading age-appropriate stuff, it just means that’s not the only safeguard he has — and that’s a good thing.

So yes, content creators aren’t your parents and aren’t responsible for making sure you never see anything you don’t like — but also, your own parents should have taught you what to do when that happens. So if they didn’t, take it from me, your internet mom:

Turn it off.

Walk away.

Talk to someone you trust about how you’re feeling.

Dirty Pair (1985 anime) S1:E7 - “Love is Everything. Risk Your Life to Elope!!”  (Watch the clip here)

This mid-80′s anime really said trans rights 🏳️‍⚧️