On New Year’s Day, we enjoyed a great time with our dear friends. We usually do our Christmas exchange with them on New Year’s Eve, but since Gin was sick we decided to move the date. That’s not really the point though :)

We have been to Buca di Beppo many times. It is a fun restaurant to visit since there are themed rooms. We sat with the Pope, actually. It’s also nice because they offer family style portions so you can get a lot of food and just share. The best part is probably because the dining experience is kid-friendly since it’s loud to begin with. The loud children we had weren’t even noticed given the environment.

But, I think we went the last time as a family. )-:

When we first arrived, I walked into the bathroom with Caleb (who is 5). I remembered some of the *adult* photographs in the ladies restroom. I saw them on the wall as we were washing our hands. I was distracting him so he didn’t notice the explicit pictures.

We were seated and chatting around the dinner table. In the Pope Room, there is a Michaelangelo-esque painting on the ceiling with little boy angels. They were anatomically correct and all. That didn’t even bother me. I have boys so it’s all equipment they have seen before. My nieces on the other hands hadn’t, but we just laughed it off.

Then, T said he needed to use the restroom. I didn’t even think about it whatsoever. “Go,” I tell him. He comes back and says “That bathroom was disqusting, Mom. You should have seen those pictures on the walls.” CRAP (figuratively)! He saw inappropriate pictures!!

We are not prudes, by any means. We can laugh about stuff. Yes, even Christians can do that. But, when it comes to exposing my children to images that are not meant for their young eyes, I’m not cool with it. I will protect their eyes from things like that for as long as I can. If that means they are 30 before they see it, so be it!

We talked about the pictures for a minute at the dinner table. I wanted to allow him to express his thoughts since I knew he did nothing wrong. We dropped it after a while. As we walked out, I started scanning the pictures on the walls of the hallways leading to the exit. Of course my eyes were more receptive to the images and what they actually were. I’d passed those same images several times before when we visited and never saw them as I saw them when I knew my child was going to see them. If that makes sense.

I was mortified!

It’s p0rn0graphy, period! I’m not naive to think that my son will never see images like this. But, I am in control of the environment that we place him in at his young, impressionable age. I am happy to hear him say the things he saw were disqusting to his eyes. He even said it as we were heating up leftovers the next day. But, that meant he remembered the images too.

I know many cultures look at the body as beautiful art. Many of these images are not what I would perceive as beautiful art. Actually, I saw a few that were down right cruel.

Let this post serve as a warning: Visit Buca di Beppo without children. Actually, don’t even take individuals with addictions that may be tempted by images such as these. I think Maggiano’s does family style dining too, right? Maybe that will be our next Italian experience (outside of Olive Garden, of course (-: ).