Frequency

Do you remember the movie "Frequency" that came out in 2000? It stars Jim Caviezel and Dennis Quaid and is about a father and son who are able to connect to each other over a time period of 30 years due to the northern lights affecting some radio waves.

I was thinking today about all the articles written about children and how they are raised today. Many of them are raised without fathers or mothers. There are articles out there that proclaim that a child will not turn out differently if raised by a single mom than if raised by both parents who are married or raised by a single dad, as long as there is love.

Then the movie "Frequency" popped into my mind. I found it interesting when I first watched that movie how differently they have the young man played by Jim Caviezel turn out depending on which type of parenting situation he came from. When he grew up without his dad because his dad died in a fire when he was six, he was a cop who seemed to have trouble staying in a committed relationship and was sort of unfriendly with some issues. When he grew up without his mom because she'd been murdered when he was six after his dad made it out of the fire alive, he was even more withdrawn and angry and not a pleasant person, one who hadn't even had a relationship with the woman he'd been in one with before. But when he grew up with both his parents because his dad survived the fire and his mom did not get murdered, thanks to the work he and his dad did over the radio waves, he ended up happily married with his own little son.

I think that even though it's a Hollywood movie, and Hollywood rarely gets things right, I think they did in this case. I think that their portrayal of how he turned out differently (not necessarily exactly how they portrayed him turning out, but that there were differences in each scenario) is pretty accurate as far as kids will turn out differently if they are raised with only one parent than if they are raised with both parents who are married to each other and stay married and committed.

Aside from the whole serial killer part, which totally freaked me out at the time I saw the movie (I had just moved to California where I lived by myself as a young teacher and didn't know anyone, so I went to see it at the theater at night by myself), I really have always enjoyed that movie for that reason--the way the son is depicted turning out differently in each scenario.