[dyna267]

I took my son to see Hotel for Dogs this weekend and expected to enjoy a fun and happy afternoon. But just a heads up to all who may not know the movie revolves around a brother and sister in foster care. The foster parents are portrayed as nasty low life human beings. The brother and sister are ashamed of their "foster" status and try to hide it from everyone. And there is a heart wrenching scene where the brother and sister are separated and brought to different group homes.

Although the movie has a happy ending in that the children are adopted into the loving home of their caseworker it left my son sad all weekend. I'm sure it brought up many sad thoughts.

It bothers me that children in foster care are made to feel ashamed and I think this movie reinforced that line of thinking. And why are foster parents always portrayed as bumbling idiots? Sorry for the extra rant! Just wanted to give you a heads up before you take your child.

[stevenstwin]

YUCK! Thanks for the heads up - I hadn't realized that about this movie:-(

Originally Posted by dyna267

I took my son to see Hotel for Dogs this weekend and expected to enjoy a fun and happy afternoon. But just a heads up to all who may not know the movie revolves around a brother and sister in foster care. The foster parents are portrayed as nasty low life human beings. The brother and sister are ashamed of their "foster" status and try to hide it from everyone. And there is a heart wrenching scene where the brother and sister are separated and brought to different group homes.

Although the movie has a happy ending in that the children are adopted into the loving home of their caseworker it left my son sad all weekend. I'm sure it brought up many sad thoughts.

It bothers me that children in foster care are made to feel ashamed and I think this movie reinforced that line of thinking. And why are foster parents always portrayed as bumbling idiots? Sorry for the extra rant! Just wanted to give you a heads up before you take your child.

[bethy724]

Too late for me & I was so disappointed. To top it off the theater had a booth set up for Humane Society with information about animals needing a home & I wondered where the booth was for foster care & the children in need of a home!

It was irresponsible to portray fp's like that ( I personally don't care-I'm fully cooked) when your target market is children you should have some basic intellegence & decency regarding foster care - this is what helps shape a child's opinion regarding foster care than they grow up to be know it all's about foster care.

[mom2more_pls]

Thanks for the heads up! I was going to take mine to that this weekend.

Am I the only one who didn't see any of those details about the kids or parents in the promo's?

[dyna267]

mom2more... I also don't remember the previews showing the cheesy foster parents or any hints that that the movie would be in that direction. But we could have been distracted by all the cute dogs. When I went back and read the newspaper review it did mention "two orphan children" but it was pretty subtle.

I'm still living with the fall out. My son has had several bouts of sadness and a melt down last night when he looked at a picture of his bio siblings. Thankfully he's beginning to feel better today. I think his melt down helped him get it out of his system. Next week we're going to try the Pink Panther...hope that's better.

[mom2more_pls]

Aww, poor guy, and poor mommy - those melt downs are so hard on us all. I'll cross my fingers that Pink Panther brings you more luck!