Once Upon A Deadpool

Like many parents of young kids, Molly and Jack love superheroes.  Most of their play revolves around dressing up as various characters, some of the Marvel and DC universe, and others of their own creation.  With the recent pop culture fascination of the anti-hero trending, so has the minions curiosity for not so squeaky clean super abled crusaders.

This summer Jack started talking about how he 'needed to see Deadpool'.  We told him no, it was too violent, too graphic, and too laden with F-bombs.  He began to wear away at us with typical kid tactics, mentioned kids at school who were able to watch it, asked for a costume for his birthday (which we got him), and started handled other (darker) super hero movies like Thor, Dr. Strange, and Avengers Infinity War with a maturity of kids closer to ten.

via Empire

For ages we told him he'd be allowed to watch Deadpool when he was ten.  Then, one morning, after I'd been out for the night, I noticed that Jack was quietly singing the Salt N' Peppa song Shoop to himself.  BUSTED.  Chris had let him watch some highlights of Deadpool, including a really violent scene from the beginning, because 'Jack was having trouble sleeping and he was up watching the film and didn't want to turn it off."

We told him that it was inappropriate for him to watch, and talk about with other kids his age, and true to his word he didn't talk about anything Deadpool plot related to other kids.  At Halloween he wanted to go out as Deadpool, but then asked me to make him another costume (a Doctor Octopus one) for school since he got that Deadpool was something inappropriate for him to wear to school.  Both kids seemed to 'get it'.

via Slash Media

When we heard that they were releasing an edited, slightly more kid-friendly version of Deadpool 2 for the holidays to bring it from it's R Rating down to a PG13 film, all to raise money for a children's charity we knew we had to take the kids AND THEY LOVED IT.....

Here's a cheat sheet on whether or not you should take your kids....

DON'T LET YOUR KIDS SEE ONCE UPON A DEADPOOL IF....

-You don't like innuendo
-You want a film with no swearing (they've removed pretty much all of the F bombs, but there is still a lot of colourful language in there)
- They scare easily (the jail scene is pretty scary, but no more scary than a later Harry Potter movie or Avengers Infinity War).
- If they're under six or seven (Molly and Jack were the youngest kids in the theatre by a few years, but handled it fine, a year or two ago this wouldn't have worked)
-You don't want your kids to see a movie where people die or shoot guns
-Your kids are likely to repeat said bad language from the movie
-You hate Fred Savage - He's a big part of the movie in the best possible way - Think Princess Bride


Otherwise enjoy....it's not as good as the original, but Molly and Jack adored it, and is chocked full of easter eggs for fans.  Don't forget to stay through the credits to see all of the extras and know that you're doing something good because profits go to charity.

Supporting Fierce Females & Sharing Their Stories

The holidays are often where we put our money where our mouths are in terms of supporting the causes and charities we believe in most. 

One of the most meaningful projects I've had the pleasure of working on is as a writer and Managing Editor for Future Female Magazine. 

This Month We Launched a Go Fund Me Account:  To Support Us Click Here

In spring 2018, Future Female Magazine  launched as a free grassroots response to what is missing from Canada's health and life style media - sharing real stories, inspirations, tips, and more from authentic Canadian women.  

With social platforms and readership levels in the thousands, and positive feedback from our supporters, fans, and readers, Future Female Magazine's digital footprint is growing every day.  We have explored entrepreneurs, mental & physical health, beauty, body positivity, personal triumph, community, and more... 

Previously Future Female Magazine has been funded by founder Kat Leroux, in addition to a small amount advertising, and other small sources of revenue.

In our outreach to potential advertisers it has become apparent that there is a need for print as well as digital issues to get the advertisements needed to continue to run this magazine, with distribution in the Greater Toronto Area.  

By supporting Future Female Magazine you will be allowing us to pay our writers, photographers, make-up artists, and contributors fair and equitable rates for their hard work, and allowing us to continue to share much needed celebration of Canadian Women.  You will also be funding, photography studio rentals, online advertisement of Future Female Magazine and the creation of  print collateral materials to solicit advertising that will help us make our one year anniversary issue a print one that can reach even more women!

All supporters who wish to be thanked for their generosity, and supporting our small Canadian startup will receive a thank you mention in our one year anniversary issue of Future Female Magazine.

Without so many amazing contributors, supporters, fans, and friends Future Female Magazine wouldn't exist.  Thank you for helping us continue to share, educate, and help bring the stories of real Canadians to print!

To Support Future Female Magazine Click Here

If you can't support financially, please like this post, share our message, on social and personally. and read our magazine!  It's free and fantastic.  Our Fall Issue Is Online Here

Lockdown

The other night my husband and I were watching the new 2018 TV series based on the Winona Ryder/ Christian Slater film Heathers.  As we came to an episode about a school lockdown drill, we began to talk about how different things are now than they were when we were growing up, and how scary this stuff all is, particularly as parents.

Not a day later I received a notification from the school board - several schools in the area were in lockdown and hold and secure, including the one that the minions go to.  While the incident being investigated by police was at a high school nearby, many daycares, primary schools, and other establishments were shut down just in case for over half of the school day.

Image via UNO News Net

I spent the afternoon distractedly tapping away at my keyboard for work, and refreshing the TDSB social media account to figure out what was going on, whether or not everyone was safe, and when/how I'd be able to pick up my kids.  As tempting as it was to call the school, demand to know what was going on, I knew they had this, and I had to be patient.  Our kids safety is dependant on us following these instructions.

Thankfully, no one was hurt and everyone let the police do their job.  At pickup, instead of finding scared kids, they were both a little hyper, since they hadn't been permitted to go out for lunch or recess that day.  The only upset moment was when Molly realized that her brother had managed to get his hands on a coveted purchase of chocolate milk (I imagine kids in the older grades who normally leave school property for lunch were buying a ton of these to fill them up at lunch), and by the time the milk cart arrived at Molly's class they were sold out. There were a lot of tears, and we needed to purchase replacement chocolate milk. Sometimes I forget that they're only seven and important issues to them are very different than they are to us.  I wish my biggest worry was chocolate milk, but I'm happy that in what was a scary situation for us, it was not one for our young kids.

I don't love that our kids live in a world where they have to do things like lockdown drills (apparently last year their was a lockdown when an animal who was suspected of having rabies was near their school - another important use of the system), I'm relieved that the school has in place rules, systems, and communications to help keep our children safe, and us parents as calm as we can be.

This serves as a reminder for us all to review our school handbooks and find out how the school will communicate with us should there be an emergency.  Today I am thankful to our teachers, the police, and the communication team at TDSB who kept our kids safe, calm, and happy.