Lately I’ve found myself stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to watching and finding movies appropriate for my kids — mostly for my 8-year-old son.

I grew up in a pretty carefree household when it came to what was on the television. Between my father who thoroughly enjoyed watching movies of all types and my sister who was 10 years older than me — I always had a means to view something I probably shouldn’t have been watching at my age.

In 1991, I was 9-years-old, barely older than my son is today, and I was in the theater thanks to my sister during the opening weekend of “Terminator 2.” The following year it was movies such as “Under Siege,” starring Steven Seagal … For anyone who remembers that classic there’s a scene near the beginning that probably isn’t “suitable” for a 10-year-old.

Regardless, going to the movies was just something we did as a family growing up.

One of my fond memories of my mother, although she didn’t regularly attend most of our movie outings, was when she brought me to see “Jurassic Park” with my uncle. I was actually home “sick” that day from school and we went to a matinee at The Palace in downtown Hamburg, one of my favorite theaters as a child. Saying you were going to bring a child to a movie while they should be in school would be an act of blasphemy these days. My mother didn’t see much wrong with this at the time and I’m thankful for that because it ended up creating a vivid childhood moment I’ll never forget.

Which brings me to today, a father of four children ages 3, 8, 9 and closing in on 11. I haven’t carried on the tradition of weekend getaways to the theater, to say the least. There have been a few reasons for that, No. 1 — the cost. It’s laughable how much a trip to a Regal after 4 p.m. for a family of six would cost. Reason No. 2 — I don’t think movies are very good these days. “Get off my lawn” alert, but it takes a lot to impress me these days. That’s not to say I’m not capable of enjoying today’s movies, I just find for every good quality movies there’s a dozen that should have been straight-to-DVD productions. And lastly, reason No. 3 — it’s really hard to find appropriate movies for my children.

Wait, what? Guy who saw “R-rated” movies at age 8 has an issue with allowing his kids to watch “PG-13 movies.”

I find this mostly troublesome with my oldest son who turns 8 next month. He’s just like me at that age — plays video games, pretends to be a superhero and loves movies. The latter being an incredibly slippery slope these days.

I’ve tried to carry on the father-son tradition of heading to the theater when a new and exciting movie comes out and plan to continue that this weekend with “Ready Player One.” I made sure to read the book beforehand and I’ve found most of Steven Spielberg films geared toward a younger audience check out as age-appropriate. There are some other safe bets such as the “Star Wars” franchise, the majority of your animated/Pixar films and the like.

Where I find myself stumbling is with the rather large genre of movies that can’t decide if they’re made for young children or adults, and the movies that are clearly made for children but for some reason producers feel the need to drop in some nuggets of adult humor. A recent example of this would be in “Ferdinand,” a cartoon movie about a bull that for some reason is referred to as “F-bomb” by some other character. Is that really necessary?

Take “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” currently streaming on Netflix for another example. I enjoy superhero movies, as many moviegoers tend to based on the box office dollars they generate. But for the majority of films in the genre there’s a required suspension of disbelief that is required to properly enjoy one’s self. With the exception of a few adult-oriented movies such as “The Dark Knight” trilogy or “Logan,” many superhero movies are made to be bombastic, cartoony and, well, unbelievable.

It’s here where I can’t understand how adult themes and curse words find their way into the movie. In a movie like “Guardians” are sexual undertones and strong language really necessary? According to Wikipedia, the movie is about “Ayesha, leader of the Sovereign race, who has the Guardians protect valuable batteries from an inter-dimensional monster in exchange for Gamora’s estranged sister Nebula, who was caught attempting to steal the batteries.” When producers are sitting around the table wondering who they need to market a story with this plot to are they really saying 20-something to middle-aged men who may or may not live in their parents’ basement? I would hope a goofy plot like this is intended for children, but from the movie content it’s clearly not.

I’m sure comic book fans are screaming into their paper as they read this. I know many comic books never shy away from adult themes. My point is, however, how difficult it is as a parent to judge what movies are appropriate for my young son when movie companies continue to try and toe the line to attract as many viewers as possible.

In an odd, twisted form of karma, the day after I had thought I completed this column my son informed me he had watched the “Guardians” movie during a sleepover at his friends house the night before. I asked him if there were any bad words in it.

“… yeah, but I ignored those,” he said, knowing full well I wasn’t thrilled he watched that movie.

I know I grew up on the worst the movie industry could throw at an adolescent and I survived, but man, it’s really hard to let go when it comes to my own kids.