(Start Rant)
Let their young children go to "innapropriate" concerts?
My wife and I volunteered to do a fund raiser to help get a community theater moving to the next "level" tonight by running (with the help of 8 other dedicated parents) a concessions stand at the new Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, IA for a Green Day concert. Now, Green Day has been around for a while, and most kids of impressionable age have heard their popular songs, so they ask mom and dad if they can go to the concert. Mom and dad, not knowing any better says yes and either drops the kids off with their friends or even go to the cencert with them.
That is all fine and dandy, but then when Green Day throws out a swear word or two, you say, hmmm... I wonder if mom and dad (or the kids for that matter) realized THAT was coming. Move on to the sexual grunting and groaning (again, we were in the consessions stand, so we couldn't see what actions went with that, but can only imagine), and then a few more swear words F'ing this, and F'ing that, add some slang words for female sexual organs, and I would be terrified to have my 11 year old daughter there (see wanted to go because some of her other 6th grade friends were going, but we said no). We saw kids that could be no more than 7-8 years old running around with no sign of mom, dad, older sibling, or anyone looking like an adult.
Maybe I am getting old. I AM 33 you know, so that's over the hill for most of the people at this concert. Some things that the band did to keep the concert a "good" one was respectible. They (Green Day) made the arena drop down to a 1 beer per person, per ID, per purchase maximum. They also required us to ID EVERYONE, and we could not server bottled water. We had to pour the bottled water into a cup to give to the customer. This was all to prevent drunken behavior, and bottle throwing, even though they were plastic bottles. It also made it easier on us because we were forced to card everyone, so the underage kids kept away. Then they wanted the beer shut off for the last hour of the concert, which helped us to get things cleaned up sooner, and allowed concert goers to sober up a little. That is the good part, but the language and sexual content (just what we could hear) was definately for adults. I know, kids swear, heck I swore when I was younger. But does an 8 year old need to be exposed to that? I don't think so. Of course, as a parent how do you screen concerts to make sure that they are OK for younger family members? Good question.
End Rant...
