PARENTING TODAY: CLEAR CUT CHOICES FOR WHOLESOME CHILDREN”S ENTERTAINMENT
Is there still a place today for wholesome children”s entertainment? How well I remember my younger sister & I kicking back on a Sunday night bathed & fed & ready before 6.30pm for “Disneyland” on our old floor model AWA Deep Image B & W television. And then there was the “Mickey Mouse Club.” They were relatively innocent days!
How times change! Now some thirty years later, as a father of two I find myself constantly hovering with the TV remote control ready to mute, edit & censor influences within children”s television programming that certainly entertains but works like a depth charge in undermining the very values that I am vigilant to instil in my own son & daughter to prepare them for their future.
Positive portrayals of corrupted activities involving blood-thirsty violence & kid-heroes who cast spells, sourcing their power from the dark side to dominate over other individuals promote such a destructive message & yet litter Saturday morning programming. An animated series of a dysfunctional family where the son does whatever he wants at the detriment of others incites the kind of boundary-pushing behaviour we work to curb in our kids behaviour & that fill every police station.
So why fuel it by allowing them to absorb & then emulate what they watch? Common sense tells me that this is self-defeating parenting! Preserving our kids from an erosion of moral value seems increasingly to be a role that needs to extend beyond the home. But where are society”s restraints? They are seldom found in today”s entertainment media which is our youth”s first window on the outside world – their forum for determining what is acceptable & unacceptable in racial, relational & sexist attitudes & practices beyond modelling mum & dad or in taking their counsel on things.
Interestingly, public demand is accommodated by the labelling of media & entertainment products warning of immoral & unwholesome content and with age-level appropriateness. Then there are ratings like PG 13, TV 14, NC 17, etc. The reasoning behind the rating system is that some content is considered inappropriate for lower ages — that they may not yet be equipped to distinguish what is fantasy from reality. But conversely, this system also encourages the thought processes, “I”m under-age for that rating but I really want to see what it is – that I”m not actually permitted to see.”
Now here”s where I feel to bring a caution regarding “G” rated films & media entertainment. Though there may be none of the “R” rating content, the system does not rate the philosophical mindset behind the storylines. An activist writer or producer with un-hidden agenda”s can certainly “sell-in” his code for senseless & villainous behaviour. Parents are required at all times to be wary of this real possibility affecting their children at home.
There must be a place made for conscience-friendly, wholesome children”s entertainment. Young children are simply young persons before God who have not yet reached the level of maturity in making their own discernible choices. They require the liberty of enjoying fun times with the family — times of laughter, interaction and family fun which will contribute so much to the solidarity of the family in their critical, rudimentary, and developing years.
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