I made my dad take me to Little Darlings when I was 12....he liked it! My context for Cynthia Nixon is still Sunshine rather than Miranda.

When I was 13 my dad had to take me to All the President's Men because it was adult accompaniment. He hated it but he did it because I really wanted to see it.

I grew up in a time when sneaking into R-rated movies as a 11 year old was easy but my poor Don Ho loving mom did have to suffer through an Alice Cooper concert on my behalf.

My sacrifice for my son is that I've sat through multiple viewings of Transformers 2 AND I've looked suitably enthusiastic each time.

I grew were we could walk to two theaters and bike to two more. We just went off with our dollars in hand and went to movies without any parental involvement. I remember seeing Willy Wonka at the Jersey Theater which was in 1971 so I was 7 at the time. As a parent, I never let my son wander off by himself at that age but we were "free range" kids in the seventies.

If my parents were involved, it was because they were taking me to movies that they thought were important to see. I remember going to Cabaret, Lady Sings the Blues and The Godfather with them. Not really kid's fare but they thought that they were socially relevant and part of my education.

I was pretty wee, and in love with mad roller coasters. I convinced dad that since I did reach minimum heigh I would be able to go on a hoopla-hooping-massive-strange roller coaster at Six Flags. He said: Sure! quite happy that I wasn't afraid of anything. When we came off the ride, I kept hollering "Again! Again!", while dad, slightly green excused himself to the nearest restroom. Mom is still laughing at that.

Thanks for the ride dad!

The sacrifice my parents made was years of sitting through some really ghastly plays I was in.

My thing with my dad was movies. He and my brother had sports, but he and I had movies. We saw Star Wars together (age 11), and Alien (I was 13). Also Cars that Eat People (at 10) and Monty Python's Life of Brian (also at 13). We'd stay up late and watch horror movies on TV, too, Night of the Lepus and Gargoyles and The Blob, stuff like that.

Damn. I just remembered what we did the last night we hung out together. Fight Club at home, me on the couch, he in that damned ugly chair. I'd read the book previously, so we had a nice talk about the interesting differences between it and the movie. He died a month later.

Miss you, dad.

Movies I saw with dad:

Gregory's Girl
The Gods must be crazy
Local hero
Every single "Police academy" (gag)
The meaning of life
Brazil

Not bad, dad. I didn't get "local hero" at all when I was that age, but that's a pretty good film.

I made my dad suffer through the never ending story as I recall. Oh boy did he hate that.

What octothorpe said. On the contrary, my parents always dropped us off to see movies (me, 5, and my sister, 7). At the same time, they took me to all sorts of movies that I wasn't ready for (Jaws, Close Encounters, Death on the Nile, the Pink Panther movies), because everyone else in the family was ready for them, and the world didn't revolve around me, or something like that.

Reds. God damn that's a long movie--with an intermission--and I like movies about history. My dad wasn't into movies in general but he sat through the whole thing.

Wow. I never went to the movies with my parents. Until I saw this thread, it never occurred to me that this was something people did with their kids.

my folks took me to see Car Wash when I was 4 years old. I think that says a lot about my parents and my upbringing. Especially since dad was unafraid to explain to his 4YO daughter that a) that lady changing in the bathroom was a "hooker", and what "hooker" meant in that context. Since they were also wont to have multi-day stoner house parties with their hippie friends, I already knew that "lady who likes to sleep with lots of men" meant "grownup stuff I wouldn't enjoy until I was older". I took that as meaning sex was the same sort of acquired adult taste as scotch, weed and cigarettes, all of which he'd gladly granted me a sample of, with predictably hilarious results. Smart man, my dad.

so... yea. I wasn't all that sheltered I guess.

by the time I was old enough to want to go see stuff like Alien and Platoon, I was hanging around with friends & friends' siblings who were old enough to get me in. Mom didn't much care and wasn't much involved in my tween/teen years.

None. As I may have mentioned before, my mom still thinks I was damaged irreparably by sneaking into Pulp Fiction when I was 14 (rather, sauntering in like it didn't matter BECAUSE IT DIDN'T OKAY).

House of Dark Shadows. I knew he would hate it, he knew he would hate it. However, I only had to ask him once, no begging whatsoever. I was old enough to see it myself, I just needed a ride, but he stayed to watch it and even bought popcorn for both of us (very rare).

I learned later in life that my father occasionally samples the current pop culture, which explained why we had a Cream album and Don Kirshner's Hits of 1974 in the home record collection. Also, apparently he likes Lady Gaga's "Telephone" more than I do. Weird freaking old man. heheh

Following on lfr, my parents didn't really censor what we saw either. We rarely went to theatres though, but to the dusk-to-dawn shows on Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day which were usually $1.00 per carload. That was how I got to see Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice when I was 12. Talk about an education!

None for me too. My younger brother and I were dropped off to watch movies. Although I do remember one time when Mum watched whatever movie it was and then we convinced her to theatre hop to see the most current James Bond* flick with us.

*A View to a Kill (thanks, IMDb). I didn't normally go for James Bond but wanted to see it because Duran Duran did the theme song.

Senyar > Until I saw this thread, it never occurred to me that this was something people did with their kids.

Really? Oh boy, man, you've missed out. I mean, watching Gregory's Girl with dad and not seeing what he found so funny was fascinating to me, I had to decode that subtle humor through dad, who understood all the innuendo I was to young for, and the british wit that flew straight over my head.

My cinema going in the past five years is all around baby: 5th of june heavily pregnant I watch Sin City as a birthday gift to myself and I spend the last half hour cursing to myself that I'm an idiot for buying coca cola when I know baby hates that. The moment the credits rolled, I beelined to the ladies room. No more movies at the cinema in 2005.. none in 2006.. none in 2007....

After that the next movie was Kung-Fu panda, a.k.a babies first movie (and I saved the popcorn box, I'm such a sap). Then we saw Wall-E, a few more animated films followed and I didn't see a grownup movie in the cinema until Iron Man - ugh. I'm going to be stuck watching princesses and frogs and teenage with movies for a while now.

One word: Xanadu

Huh. Trying to remember. I know that dad took me to see my first R rated movie, Alien. I was 13.

I specifically remember seeing The Pink Panther Strikes Again as part of a birthday party and my dad came along.

I seem to recall that for most movies they dropped us off at the ticket booth and said "see you in two hours".

For mother's day last year, I took both kids to see the Hannah Montana movie.