Blogging A – Z Challenge 2021: G is for G Rated Content

Herb’s Blog, Herbdate 22343 – 809:

Here’s the haps:

First, I will confess that by definition there are times when my content is PG, even, possibly PG-13. And yes, someone is going to point out that I do my best to withhold support for hollyweird and the entertainment industry so why would I use their system for ratings? Because these definitions work as a solid base that everyone understands equally. And it’s easy to find information about it. There should be little room for confusion but there often is. For my purposes, I mean these definitions as a jumping-off point for this post:

Rated G: General audiences – All ages admitted.
Rated PG: Parental guidance suggested – Some material may not be suitable for children.
Rated PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned – Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Actually, the lion’s share of my posts are G rated. Anyone can read them. There are some topics that are best left to parents to discuss and I have written about them before as well as topics that parents need to undertake with their children when they feel they are old enough. Things like abortion and politics are things that should be taught to children by you, the Parent. That’s what Parental Guidance means and our world is woefully lacking in.

I think for the vast majority of my material, I can, with good conscience say that I have a G-Rated blog. I definitely do not use or believe in profanity as some of you will remember from my post, “Profanity Is Not A Sign Of Intelligence.” It’s a sad state of affairs our world is in that very few people can wear my tenth-grade English teacher’s pin:

Some people have said to me that she probably cussed like a sailor when the kids weren’t around and perhaps that’s true although she had ways of expressing herself that were far more effective.

I got to thinking about this again as I was thinking about you, my extraordinarily intelligent readers. I think I may be different from a lot of bloggers because I know, live and in person, many of the people in my audience and I like them and want them to be proud of me. It makes me happy when I hear a conversation that goes, “Oh, yes. I read about that on his blog. Do you read his blog? Oh, you really should.” I couldn’t find the post where I shared this originally (but I didn’t search diligently, either) but at my grandchildren’s Christian school, one of the teachers had mistakenly or absent-mindedly displayed my blog post she was reading instead of the instructional material. “Whoa, teacher! You read my Grandpa’s blog? Cool!”

My point is that I really try hard to maintain a G average. There are a number of you that would defend hollyweird and the entertainment industry and even Mad Ave. Try this challenge, if you feel up to it. This is especially intended for those who claim to have Judeo-Christian beliefs. It may work with other belief systems as well, I don’t know, but if you wanted to try it you could do a similar test. Take a notepad and write down the Ten Commandments. Keep it handy while you are doing your average viewing for a week and make a checkmark or tick mark beside every one as it’s broken. See how many times in your week each commandment is broken. Then ask yourself if a person came into my home and did these things, would I welcome them and their behavior? Would I want my kids to emulate their behavior? I have had conversations with parents that went something like, “Little Herkimer has been saying a bad word at school. Where could he have possibly picked it up? I tell him all the time not to talk like that.” Well, you use it yourself, sometimes in anger toward little Herky, you watched 3 “comedy” shows that used it and laughed your head off at it and then repeated some of your favorite lines to your friends when they visited and everybody laughed. Hmmm…I wonder if we can figure this out.

Whatever you do and allow, your children will do ten times more, good or bad.

I hope you always find my stuff to be rated G

22 Comments

  1. I have always subscribed to the notion that cuss words are lazy and have taught my children that it is a demonstration of respect to our fellow humans and our Creator to use more thoughtful language. Can’t say that I have always been 100% successful at keeping my language clean, but people are generally shocked when I don’t. I’m always particularly cautious on my blog and on social media and I appreciate it when others do the same. Thanks for keeping it G/PG.

  2. Good story about mistakenly showing your blog post. Win! I love words yet I do find myself cussing more than usual? Not because I don’t know the words but because my audience doesn’t understand them. What the h*** has happened to American education!

  3. I try to keep my blog reasonably G rated as well, but I think occasional use of swear words in life can serve to underscore a point. Apparently there’s also a psychological benefit to swearing in times of great stress or pain, so why not. I don’t like it when people use them all the time though, it’s just crass

  4. What I and some of my friends have noticed in the last 5 years is how “acceptable” it became for politicians and even commentators on 24/7 news stations to swear — and Trump truly is the person who is most responsible for opening that door. Public discourse has coarsened, and it cheapens ideas and fuels resentment, it seems to me.

    • Well, while he is the most vulgarly-spoken president we have had for a while he cannot force newscasters or even other politicians to the same level. They choose what they are going to say.

        • He was the most noticable but hollyweird and the lamestream-mainstream news have been doing it for years which is why he was a ble to be tolerated.

          • As the president, he should have been holding himself to a higher standard. There’s no question about that. Hollywood has been in a completely different arena always. Mainstream news hadn’t been swearing until the last 4 years. The change came with him. I found it a jarring new behaviour in newsrooms.

  5. I love this I look at a lot of comedy as you might have guessed and I will never understand the shock laugh. It works for others but I like keeping it real there has never been any need for profanity, and a PG joke can usually bemade G if you just think it through a minute. I wany everyone to enjoy what I do and that is something I love about what you do as well Keep up the good work
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    Laugh and brighten your heart

  6. Good stuff that. Problem is hollywierd doesn’t advise by their own logic in setting those. I had to watch a movie in school for a class that’s not even close to the right rating label. I was very upset.

  7. Excellent points. I try to maintain a G rating too, but will admit to an occasional lapse.

    Comics are the worst, I think. I get that blue language was a cutting edge comic device in, say, 1963, but that mine was played out long ago. Clean comedy is so much better – probably because it’s harder to do. The material from old comics from the days of vigilant censorship (Jack Benny is an example) are still hilarious.

    The stuff allowed on TV today is mind boggling.

    • I agree. And sadly for some so-called comedians, it’s all they know. I can listen Jack Benny, Fibber McGee and Molly, and Abbott and Costello over and over again.

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