was anyone else forced to watch tv shows not age appropriate?

not all the time, but a memory I have from childhood (it happened quite a bit) that around 7 or 8, I'd be forced to watch chat shows for around two hours in the afternoon

I don't remember what shows, but I do remember not being allowed cartoons, kiddy things, for those two hours. I had to watch adults talk about.. well, usually relationships and..

considering I was raised with lots and lots of siblings of various ages and the time frame that I grew up in was where there wasnt alot of regulation on tv shows and tv and movies did not have a ratings system it was normal for our family to watch all kinds of shows including romance/ soap operas. talk shows, game shows, cartoons and more all had sexualized topics undertones and so on. what the 4 and 5 year olds in the family watched was the same shows that the teenagers and adults in the family watched.

it wasnt like today where its common for households to have their own tvs in many different rooms or each member have their own streaming accounts and profiles.

I count myself lucky to have had a tv to watch considering.

1. we only had one tv for the whole household,

2. tv back in those days was only 3 basic channels that would have "good reception" at different times of the day depending upon which way the antenna permanently mounted on the roof top was pointing, cbs, abc and nbc. and if very lucky pbs.

what was on those three basic channels is what you watched. there was no such thing as cable, internet and streaming in the the time frame I grew up in and in the location, I grew up in. even adults didnt have much of a choice. if you turned on the tv between this and this time all three channels were showing news broadcasting, if you turned on the tv during this and that time frame all that was on, on all three channels was soap operas, if you turned on the tv during this and that time frame all three channels were showing talk shows, if you turned on the tv between this and that time frame you got a couple hours of movies complete with commercials and sit coms and then if you turned on the tv during the last time slots of the broad casting day you got the end of the day news broad casts. and that was the whole daily line up of tv on air broadcasting day.

it amazes my children today that when I and my wife were children, tv channels actually shut down at around 11 pm - midnight, you turn on the tv as a child after midnight and all you got in the middle of the night was this annoying blank white, noisy "snowy" screen or the channel logo and music played its good night tone. and then there was nothing playing on the tv until about 6 am the next morning.

yup I watched all kinds of adult shows including talk shows, soap operas and other shows as a kid, merv griffin, sally jessy on the radio and tv. meet the press, 60 minutes, dan roony, dan rather news. mutual of omahas wild kingdom, secret storm, cliffhangers, twilight zone, alfred hitchcock, boris karloff perry mason, movies on tv like - the birds, lets scare jessica to death, bunny lake is missing, frankenstein, dracula. king kong, godzilla, Jaws and westerns like wild wild west, ponderosa, blazing saddles, annie oakly

not much of a choice for adults or children for tv in the 1950s, 60's 70's and on into the 80's you watched what was on those three channels or you went outside to play, did your homework or did your chores., or read a book.

My mother and father were never parents. And I know this is going to sound harsh towards myself, but I wish they didn't fornicate that day that. They had their own issues. They separated days after I was born. I think. My grandparents on both side are super all over the place and sounds like communication, no surprise, was a huge issue.
They were caught up in their own worlds that stuff was not really the greatest, my mother married a man that was easy to aggravate and had violent outburst, Didn't mix well with a kid (me) who had ADHD.
I digress. I remember they didn't care about me and my half brothers, and would slap on the last VHS they got at Blockbuster. I remember Donnie Darko on several occasions. Maybe its why I dislike movies. It scared me, and My stepfather would get pissed off and tell me the shut up or smack me. My mother did nothing or was never home. I never had stuffies and plushies so I usually went into my room and just went to bed at 4 in the afternoon.

When I was in kindergarten my teacher asked us our favorite movie and I said Saving Private Ryan because I had seen it like a million times. Watched it as an adult. Some disturbing scenes I probably wouldn't let a four year old watch.

I've probably seen a lot of shyt a child shouldn't see. I remember my dad taking me to Hooters when I was pretty damn young too lol.

I did watch stuff like Rocket Power and Hey Arnold too though, just alone.

I was kept up until the early hours of the morning watching horror movies as early as age 6, might have been earlier.

I watched a lot of "Married with Children" when I was younger, and it DEFINITELY wasn't age appropriate. And I think I got a hint of Madonna's music videos that were hypersexualized too.