Friends. Socialization. Blah Blah Blah.
This is the socialization that I love. Good friends. Positivity. Encouragement. Compassion.
This is a family of many who visit us often. I have honestly never heard a word of negativity come from one of these children. I am not saying it never happens but I have not witnessed it. When one of my children fall they rush to help them up. When a child is sad they are there and concerned. They have never called my children names or done anything with malicious intent.
They are a strong Christian, homeschooling family with strong morals. When my children play with them I know they look up to them and learn from them. I don't have to worry about what they will be exposed to and I like that.
I have decided recently that our kids will not be watching TV any longer. Yes, they will watch DVD's that we approve of or a kids channel early in the morning. Any other television will no longer be. No more commercials, no more previews and no more sexualization of everything.
I was watching Family Feud the other day and the question was...What would women like to know about their husbands ex-girlfriend? One answer was...Was she good in bed? First I thought, well that was inappropriate. My children should not be thinking about people being good in bed. I did not even consider the fact that they are getting the impression that it is normal for someone to have multiple partners. Isn't that terrible? And we wonder why there are so many pregnant teens with no morals! Why are we shocked? It is spit at them from every angle! TV, school, internet...etc.
Are we sheltering our children? Hell yes! Yes we are! Is that a bad thing? No, I don't believe it is.
2 comments:
Neely - I'd be curious to read a blog about any changes in your children that you notice with no tv viewing. We haven't watched tv for I think what has been several years now (where does the time go!?) and we stopped for the brain-development reasons (an article called Strangers in our Homes laid out some info that convinced me tv viewing was bad for developing brains) and the content reasons like you've mentioned here - especially commercials that seem to turn our population into greedy consumers.
I noticed a HUGE change in my children and I see an equally big change in them on the occasion that they do sit at the boob tube for any length of time (like when we visit the grandparents).
We do Pizza and a Movie night once a week with a movie that I've selected and feel is appropriate - it isn't easy, many movies targeted at kids are crazy violent with content I'd rather my children not be exposed to just yet! I'm always asking folks for movie suggestions and reading online reviews to find the next movie our family can enjoy together.
What is funny when you stop watching tv is how much you realize you rely on tv references for your thoughts and beliefs - there are so many times I notice now where I mention this or that tv show/reference as if it is some kind of universal knowing (like the family feud reference) - if this is universal knowing (and it seems to be here in our part of the blue marble) what a sad KNOWING we share - time for new knowing based on experience and LIFE rather than watching fake played out drama meant to mold our thoughts and behaviours - so ya, good call on ending the tv viewing - please update on how it is going!! :D
Kim
AWWWW I KNOW THOSE PEOPLE!!!! :D
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