Thursday, March 10, 2011

Taking our kids back

Last night I was sitting on my couch flipping through the channels and I stopped at MTV. It had been awhile since I had stopped there and wanted to see what was new. It was a new season of "The Real World". According to Medialifemagazine.com MTV is the highest-rated network among people 12-24. Really? The show I watched last night is rated R at least if not a mild x-rated sex show. They have 7 strangers picked to live in a house and the first night they get there they manage to have an out right orgy in the hot tub with total strangers.

If this is the show and shows like this are what our 12, 13, 14, and 15 year olds are watching what is the message they are hearing? Take off your clothes as fast as you can for anyone who asks?

It's not just this show but thundered of them. From Jersey Shore to Shake it up on Disney kids are bombarded with sexual images. Gone are the days of modesty and morality. They also encourage this behavior in the marketing they do to children from the Bratz dolls to the pop culture that has our teens hostage. They have even created a new age group to target, Tweens.

I know that it is our job as parents to weed through the garbage and help them build character and a moral ethic but our job is becoming painstakingly difficult. Do I think the government has an obligation to help us, no. Do I think we as parents need to be stronger than the corporations that fuel this fire, yes. The question is how?

Some of us have opted to send our kids to Private Christian schools or have taken them out of school all together and homeschool them. I think that is a start. Public schools promote sexual exploration in their sex education programs. Instead of saying abstaining is the best answer,be modest and have self control. They are teaching, we figure you are going to do it anyway so just go for it, see your school nurse for condoms. I support telling children there is a moral ethic, a moral obligation to yourself, and that there is no shame in waiting. At the same time letting them know that there are ways to prevent STD's and unwanted pregnancy. Showing both sides of the coin, unlike schools today who only want to show one side and in this case its tails up.

We are losing our kids. We are losing them to pop culture. We are teaching them that the gang on Jersey shore are the people you should aspire to be. Whatever happened to teaching our daughters about Amelia Airhart, Joan of Arc, or Abigail Adams? Today's standards would tell us our daughters are better off knowing, Snookie, Rihanna, or Lady Gaga. Our sons are no longer taught to be gentlemen and take pride in a girl who is modest. They are being taught to call them ho's, to get as many as they can, and to see how many of them they can get to make out with each other.

It would be nice if kids courted again. It would be nice if a boy wanted to take your daughter out on a date he would come to the door, shake your husbands hand, and treat her with respect. It would be nice if our daughters didn't want to be like the girls in the music videos and respected themselves more. If more people were outraged and get off their butts and parented maybe we wouldn't see it so often. People aren't outraged. As a society we have put our hands up and said, ok take our children and do as you will with them. A small resistance as started and I am happy to be apart of it. We are taking our kids back one by one.

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