10 Life Lessons That Parents Wish Hollywood Would Stop Teaching Their Kids

1. Adults Are Stupid

If all the other lessons on this list continued being taught until the end of time, they'd at least be a little easier for adults to deal with if not for this one: parents and adults in general being portrayed as ignorant, inept, or idiotic. Whether it's the foster parents in Matilda who are dirty liars and generally very stupid (to be fair, bad parents do exist and that was part of the point of this movie), or simply a clumsy caregiver like Inspector Gadget who stumbles accidentally into the solutions to problems while, secretly, his niece is doing all the hard work, kids movies have a nasty habit of showing anyone over the age of 20 as being thick-headed, absent-minded, oblivious, or just plain mean. My favorite has to come in the form of Blank Check, though. While it never performed all that well at the box office, this Disney film (I promise, I tried really hard to not make this entire article a list of Disney movies, I really did!) features a young boy whose bike gets run over by a mob boss. In an attempt to deal with the problem easily, he quickly writes the kid a check without filling in the dollar amount, allowing him to enter whatever number he wants. The boy, naturally, opts for a million dollars. Not only does this work (the bank manager assumes that this 11-year-old is a hired money launderer), but when he gets his money, no one ever questions how he suddenly comes to be "employed" by the fictional "Mr. Macintosh", nor does anyone suspect foul play when he turns said boss's new home into a playground. It would almost seem acceptable to forgive the movie its faults in portraying adult intelligence if it weren't for the bizarre and unsavory romantic plot line between the 11-year-old and the very-much grown up FBI agent Shay Stanley. Excuse me while I shift uncomfortably in my seat. In any case, the film, along with countless others like it, portray the parents and other adults as bumbling buffoons or easily manipulated. Rebellion is a natural part of growing up and that won't stop any time soon. However, we can bet that parents would like it if Hollywood wouldn't convince kids that it's so easy to pull one over on them. What do you think? Any other lessons that parents hate?