Swearing in Children's Movies - Is it okay?

When I was a kid, my parents let me watch all kinds of television programming that most certainly was not designed for children.  No, really, I saw Eddie Murphy's Raw when I was in grade school. Yeah.  Clearly, I turned out alright (depending on who you ask), but when I think about it, I would not make the same choices for my own son.  He is now three years old, and I've been letting him watch DVDs of kid's movies lately.  He's old enough to really appreciate them now, and it's a lot of fun for him, as well as for his father and me.  Snuggling on the couch with a bowl of popcorn is all kinds of warm and fuzzy, you know?

But I've noticed something that startled me, initially.  There is cursing in children's movies nowadays... ?  Let me assure you that I'm no prude, and I'm not perfect either.  Having my kid yell out "A**HOLE!" from the backseat right after I yelled at someone (who was acting like a moron) is all I need to remember to admit that fully.  But I was honestly not expecting curse words in movies designed for children. 

I noticed it first in Stuart Little - the main street cat curses on more than one occasion (he says both "damn" and "hell").  The first time I heard it I thought I must have heard it wrong.  But no, upon rewatching, there it was again.  Okay, that's rated PG, so I figured, "whatever."  Then recently, Braden got the Cars movie DVD, and it happened again.  Lightning McQueen comes close to a nervous breakdown at one point and yells out, "I'M IN HILLBILLY HELL!' Sally repeats the phrase later.

Um.  Like I said, I'm no prude and I'm not perfect, but this bothers me.  I'm of the opinion that the movie gains nothing from this.  I'm already in trouble with my own mouth setting a bad example - do the children's movies have to do it, too? ;-) 

Am I too tightly wound here, or does this bother you as well?  What are your thoughts?

Lotus Carroll, aka Sarcastic Mom, writes @ i am lotus, reviews @ lotus reviews, and is Contributing Editor of Blissfully Domestic's photography column.