While on the hunt for a new blog topic a friend sent me a link to an article titled Little Girls Gone Wild. In the article the author mentions celebrity role models, marketing and children's clothing and how they effect the innocence of our real-life girls. Celebrities like Britney Spears, Mylie Cyrus and Lindsay Lohan are named and referred to as Disney Princesses. She promotes a recently published book whose partial title is "Cinderella Ate My Daughter." Is the media really endangering our children? Is the media overstepping their bounds?
Yes and No. Does the media effect the minds of our kids? Of course. Is the media crossing the line when targeting young teens? It really all depends on who you ask. Take a look at a your parents high school yearbook. Now take a look at your own. In just 20 years a LOT has changed. Now-a-days you can use the term "modesty" and "short shorts" in the same sentence. A couple years back shorts like that were only seen in a Playboy magazine or a strip club. We, as a community, label it as acceptable. The media is just going with the flow. While I consider it a danger for the future of the next generation, many see it as normal.
Just today I went to visit my Dad. We were watching classic comedians like Bob Hope, Rodney Dangerfield, Red Skeleton, Richard Pryor and Joan Rivers. Back then the humor was clean. Their definition of dirty humor was cracking jokes about their current husband in reference to their first husband who is in the grave. Times have changed. And 40 years isn't really all that long in comparison to the changes that have taken place since then. Society is changing rapidly and if you want to protect the innocence of the youth today it begins with us.
Yes, television plays a part in the mind of our kids. Yes, many celebrities are poor role models. Yes, marketing teams intentionally target the younger demographic is ways that are completely inappropriate. But the blame shouldn't be all on them. As parents we should know when to turn the television off. We need to take steps to allow our children to see the role model in US. When we play a larger part in the lives of our kids, they will look to us as a friend and not always as a parent. We should be doing everything we can to keep that line of communication open from child to parent.
Kids should participate in more wholesome, family friendly activities. So many parents are so busy buzzing around that their kids find alternate forms of entertainment. They have more time to kick back in front of the tv and think what they could do to become more like that celebrity and impress boys instead of gathering around the kitchen table with the family and playing a game of Uno. The key to raising a modest innocent child is to keep your role in her life open and active.
To raise a good kid, you have to be a good parent. Now, no parent is perfect. We all make mistakes, as do our children. But a good rule of thumb is this... remember WWJD? Our kids think WWMD, What Would Mommy (or Daddy) Do? Everything you do in the eyes of a child is mimicked. Even if your child is in bed, be mindful of what you are doing. Think before you act, would you want your child to do this? Is it appropriate for her to be exposed to this at her age? Will she understand when you explain that it's only for adults? Those little ears are never far behind. Their eyes can pop around a corner at any time and it would be wise to be prepared.
While raising a child of any age, but especially when they are young and impressionable, it is imperative that we do what we want them to do. Be who we want them to be, and act how we want them to act. You can't tell them not to drink and smoke while you're holding a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. You have to show them. Be their teacher. Be their role model. Be their friend.
Clarance Kelland said it best. "My father didn't tell me how to live, he lived, and let me watch him do it."
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