I’ve come to rely on Common Sense Media for advice on all the media my kids consume. It’s a treacherous road for modern day parents and this is a helpful tool.

I setup a profile for my kids and use their recommendations to find interesting and appropriate things to watch.

Provide a child’s age and gender, select topics that interest them (Dogs, Cats and Mice) and character strengths you’d like them to learn about (Integrity; Curiosity) from checklists. Then set your tolerance for violence, sex, language, and drinking / drugs / smoking. That’s it.

Find Free Movies

This turned up tons of movies based on my selections for us to check out. I narrowed the results to only show me Netflix or Amazon Prime titles. Cause you know, free.

If something looked really interesting, I saved it to my watchlist. No more sitting around on movie night staring at each other not knowing what to watch.

Video Games

I also rely on Commonsense Media to VET ALL VIDEO GAMES that my son plays. This is really important.

He’s twelve. He came home from a friend’s house and told me they played Assassin’s Creed Origins.

Now he knows that game is not allowed in our house, and I don’t want him playing it elsewhere either. Will he comply when he’s away from home? I can’t know for sure, but he knows that I care and I’m paying attention.

That matters.