How to explain RENT to an 8-year-old..

So my brother, who's 8 years old, has this weird fascination with just getting stuff that other ppl want..for himself, so when I asked for the RENT OBC poster for Xmas he was like "I WANT THAT TOO!" So obviosuly my mom wasn't gonna get it for him, sowhen we go to NYC today, he says he's gonna buy it with the 20 dollars my grandma gave him. Well I told him, "Hmm mommy probably won't like you buying that, it's too inappropriate for you" and when he asked why..well, I wasn't sure what to say
He said : "Why? It's just about that Anthony guy talking about how he can't pay his RENT"
Me: Yes..of course...

Well how do I explain THAT to him? ..... you know the whole drugs and AIDS thing..which he shouldn't learn till like the 5th grade, but he is annoying me soo much asking why he can't. Why the hell I said it isn't appropriate for him, I don't know..go figure

---

or let your parents handle it.

---

I would leave it to your parents.

---

Learning from older siblings is how I learned alot of things. However, explaining something like this might want to be left to a parent, so it is done correctly. The only reason I say this is that I know how much kids question and pry. One bit of information explained to him will raise more questions and those answers will provoke more questions. You may not be prepared to answer all of them.

---

BlueWizard,

Of course, that's not at all what RENT is about.

---

I think Bluewizard was trying to summarize why it's "inappropriate"...obviously the little brother has heard some of the cd.

---

Your brother's really not too young. You could only imagine the types of things that children are exposed to everyday. I mean, what grade is he in? My little sister is in the 6th grade. One day she came home telling me how she heard a girl in one of her classes telling a friend how she was just in the bathroom giving some guy head for coke. What is this world coming to? Tell him about the show is the least of your worries, in a couple of years he could be that boy pimping coke.

umm...*thinks*

well..."Bisexuals, trisexuals, homo sapiens, Carcinogens, hallucinogens, men, Pee Wee Herman!" :)

---

BlueWizard,

Yeah, I agree about the two sentences thing, but the realities of AIDS and art are kind of background to the story of a group of young friends in New York who live through a year, and are torn apart by their realities, and brought together through their hopes and dreams.

---

I like that description too but it might go over the head of an 8 year old.

---

The fact remains that this child is 8 years old. While my brother knew many things he shouldn't at 8 years old, he didn't know the extent of how ugly the world can get. The fact that a lot of the characters in this show are dying and some are addicted to drugs is just a little too boldly 'real' for a child. I think your best bet would be to explain to your mother that he was asking about the show and if SHE wants to broach the toopic with him, so be it. I think you said as much as you could say and it's most definitely not your place to really explain the content of Rent to him.

---

It's not so much that as the fact that I think he's a bit too young to be subjected to those kind of harsh realities.

---

Thanks guys!!

So it turns out, the minute he actually saw the poster, and saw Daphne and Idina's pose, he said "OH GROSS WHAT'S THAT GIRL WEARING!!!!" so in the end I didn't have to explain anything to him...lol

---