Options
How do you raise a child in today's world?
musicismylife78
Posts: 6,117
I am not married and don’t have any kids, so its just me ranting and trying to pick peoples brains here.
Kids these days it seems are forced to grow up too quick, to become adults too quick. They are exposed to many horrific and disturbing things via television and the internet, and certainly that cant be denied.
If you were bringing a child home from the hospital today, how would you protect or not protect the kid from the world? Is the job of a parent to protect a child from the outside world?
Do you block bad tv shows with objectionable content and say to your kid, “you cant watch pg 13 or R rated movies until you are such and such an age” and do you block adult websites on the internet? Do you monitor what the child reads or watches or views?
Right now, a kid could go online and see pictures of dead bodies or disturbing stuff online or watch and read stuff about Iraq or whatever. What do you do about that?
How does one raise a child in a violent, sexist, racist culture?
I know this sounds bad, and I even have relatives having kids, which is a big deal, but in my general opinion, anyone having kids right now is out of their mind. It seems absurd to bring a child into the world right now. There is racism, sexism, homophobia, war, death, violence, poverty, overpopulation etc… It makes no sense to bring another child into that type of world.
Everything a modern kid has to deal with now is so insanely hard. It seems like and I really believe this, that our parents have NO IDEA what we are going through, and that they would never make it as a kid these days.
You don’t want your kids exposed to the bad stuff in the world, the violence, the death, the horror, but what do you do? And I think that’s one reason why I feel I don’t want to have kids. I cant protect them.
How does one stop a kid from growing up too fast? How does one prevent that, especially when this culture makes it inevitable? How does a parent protect against a kid being exposed to daily body counts from Iraq, murders and rapes, etc…? Exposure to that stuff is considered normal now, which is the absurd part. Its not normal and never should be considered as such.
It seems so pervasive, the culture of violence of death of hate, that it almost seems like a modern child is exposed to it no matter if you blocked every tv show and every website. And that’s a scary thing.
The girls in the movie Thirteen are a perfect example. That’s life for modern teens. It’s a culture that says kids have to grow up too soon. And personally it pisses me off.
Thoughts?
Kids these days it seems are forced to grow up too quick, to become adults too quick. They are exposed to many horrific and disturbing things via television and the internet, and certainly that cant be denied.
If you were bringing a child home from the hospital today, how would you protect or not protect the kid from the world? Is the job of a parent to protect a child from the outside world?
Do you block bad tv shows with objectionable content and say to your kid, “you cant watch pg 13 or R rated movies until you are such and such an age” and do you block adult websites on the internet? Do you monitor what the child reads or watches or views?
Right now, a kid could go online and see pictures of dead bodies or disturbing stuff online or watch and read stuff about Iraq or whatever. What do you do about that?
How does one raise a child in a violent, sexist, racist culture?
I know this sounds bad, and I even have relatives having kids, which is a big deal, but in my general opinion, anyone having kids right now is out of their mind. It seems absurd to bring a child into the world right now. There is racism, sexism, homophobia, war, death, violence, poverty, overpopulation etc… It makes no sense to bring another child into that type of world.
Everything a modern kid has to deal with now is so insanely hard. It seems like and I really believe this, that our parents have NO IDEA what we are going through, and that they would never make it as a kid these days.
You don’t want your kids exposed to the bad stuff in the world, the violence, the death, the horror, but what do you do? And I think that’s one reason why I feel I don’t want to have kids. I cant protect them.
How does one stop a kid from growing up too fast? How does one prevent that, especially when this culture makes it inevitable? How does a parent protect against a kid being exposed to daily body counts from Iraq, murders and rapes, etc…? Exposure to that stuff is considered normal now, which is the absurd part. Its not normal and never should be considered as such.
It seems so pervasive, the culture of violence of death of hate, that it almost seems like a modern child is exposed to it no matter if you blocked every tv show and every website. And that’s a scary thing.
The girls in the movie Thirteen are a perfect example. That’s life for modern teens. It’s a culture that says kids have to grow up too soon. And personally it pisses me off.
Thoughts?
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
Seriously, turn off the TV for a month and see if you feel the same way.
How is this any different from raising a child in the past? was it less sexist or racist 50 years ago?
http://www.wishlistfoundation.org
Oh my, they dropped the leash.
Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!
"Make our day"
attention
and
communication
and
rules
no matter what is going on in the world
do you think it was any easier raising kids during the depression, the WWII era or during the sixties? Arguably kids are much more equipped to deal with adulthood these days.
Although I will say I think the internet has resulted in an increase of pedophiles who are willing to try and take that next step-that scares the heck out of me.
no. i agree
pray you have boys.
eh, a kid is going to have to grow up one day. when i found out things about this world i was still shocked no matter what my age was at that time.
the only thing that i found fun and good is finding out about sex, in fact i knew about sex from an early age and that didn't make me into a promiscuous person/neither did it make me want to try it early
I don't think the ideas of how to raise a child have changed one bit. There's always been a lot of pressures out there to sway children, but good parents find a way to connect and communicate with their kids.
http://www.reverbnation.com/brianzilm
Every generation has its problems. In my grandparents day, they had to deal with war too. 16 year old kids were signing up to fight the cause, little knowing what they were in for. My parents generation had the fear of the draft and the Vietnam war hanging over their heads. I don't think racism was any less prevalent in past generations, and in a lot of ways, was probably more so.
Personally, I raise my own children with a lot of similarities in the way I was raised. There are TV shows I won't let my children watch, movies I won't let them see. As they get older, I slowly let the reins out in that respect. I refused to shove my kids off to school the minute they reached the chronological expected age. I waited until I felt they were ready for it, then was fortunate enough to be able to send them to very small alternative schools in their formative years. We keep the computer in the kitchen/dining room so it's highly visible. My kids don't have televisions or computers in their rooms. There are very definitely ways you can protect your children from a lot of the horror of the world and create this cocoon of innocence for them in their younger years. I think if you raise kids with a lot of love, and lot of interest in them and everything they are doing, and allow them to simply be kids, they turn out ok.
The worst thing you can do is rush them through childhood, pushing them to reach milestones, pushing them into school too young, offering them too much choice and at the end of the day, they don't cope. They're just kids and need to be allowed to delight in their childhood, cause really, it is so short. I don't understand the rush to get kids into school at 4 and a half, some of them at that age are still wearing a nappy to bed and can't even tie their shoelaces, yet we expect them to endure 6 hours a day of "structured" learning. And then we wonder why the rates of kids with learning and behavioural difficulties are in the increase. We ask, why can't my child concentrate in school, why isn't my child getting the grades I expect, and then we label them, medicate them and try our hardest to mold them into little replica's of ourselves. I think the greatest gift you can give your child, is his/her childhood. Give them the space to be who they want to be, and watch with pride and amazement at the incredible people they become. I can honestly say my kids are remarkable people, they're all unique and totally unafraid of failure, or of pursuing their dreams. As a mother, thats a fantastic place to be.
The thing is. Really. You have to teach them everything. I don't mean to be simple about it, but you really do. I'm always amazed how when my daughter comes up with some random question or issue and I just think "man, you just have to teach them everything."
I think you need a lot of common sense and a good sense of humor. As well as lots of boundaries and rules.
Less television watching is a must and spending more time with you children is a must also. however that becomes more difficult these days with ALL the demands that go into have to work.
TELEVISION: Drug Of A Nation by Michael Franti.
One nation
under God
has turned into
one nation under the influence
of one drug
[chorus:]
Television the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
(2x)
T.V. it
satellite links
our United States of Unconsciousness
Apathetic therapeutic and extremely addictive
The methadone metronome pumping out
150 channels 24 hours a day
you can flip through all of them
and still there's nothing worth watching
T.V. is the reason why less than 10 per cent of our
Nation reads books daily
Why most people think Central Amerika
means Kansas
Socialism means unamerican
and Apartheid is a new headache remedy
absorbed in it's world it's so hard to find us
It shapes our mind the most
maybe the mother of our Nation
should remind us
that we're sitting too close to...
[Chorus:]
Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
(2x)
T.V. is
the stomping ground for political candidates
Where bears in the woods
are chased by Grecian Formula'd
bald eagles
T.V. is mechanized politic's
remote control over the masses
co-sponsored by environmentally safe gases
watch for the PBS special
It's the perpetuation of the two party system
where image takes precedence over wisdom
Where sound bite politics are served to
the fastfood culture
Where straight teeth in your mouth
are more important than the words
that come out of it
Race baiting is the way to get selected
Willie Horton or
Will he not get elected on...
[Chorus:]
Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
(2x)
T.V., is it the reflector or the director ?
Does it imitate us
or do we imitate it
because a child watches 1500 murders before he's
twelve years old and we wonder why we've created
a Jason generation that learns to laugh
rather than to abhor the horror
T.V. is the place where
armchair generals and quarterbacks can
experience first hand
the excitement of warfare
as the theme song is sung in the background
Sugar sweet sitcoms
that leave us with a bad actor taste while
pop stars metamorphosize into soda pop stars
You saw the video
You heard the soundtrack
Well now go buy the soft drink
Well, the onla cola that I support
would be a union C.O.L.A.(Cost Of Living Allowance)
On television
[Chorus:]
Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
(2x)
Back again, "New and improved"
We return to our irregularly programmed schedule
hidden cleverly between heavy breasted
beer and car commercials
CNNESPNABCTNT but mostly B.S.
Where oxymoronic language like
"virtually spotless", "fresh frozen"
"light yet filling" and "military intelligence"
have become standard
T.V. is the place where phrases are redefined
like "recession" to "necessary downturn"
"Crude oil" on a beach to "mousse"
"Civilian death" to "collateral damages"
and being killed by your own Army
is now called "friendly fire"
T.V. is the place where the pursuit
of happiness has become the pursuit of
trivia
Where toothpaste and cars have become
sex objects
Where imagination is sucked out of children
by a cathode ray nipple
T.V. is the only wet nurse
that would create a cripple
[Chorus:]
Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
(4x
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
http://www.wishlistfoundation.org
Oh my, they dropped the leash.
Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!
"Make our day"
I know that sounds lame, but when I had my first son 17 years ago, I was a lot younger and very concerned with people approving of me and thinking I was a good mother. I realized soonafter that I could not possibly measure myself that way because everyone is so different and it is not fair to ourselves to do that. I know now that if I truly know MY values and morals and live in ways that are respectful of others and yet true to myself, I will feel that I am a good mother.
Somehow, we all end up figuring it out as long as we are living in a way that is conscious of the fact that we are responsible for another human being now, not only the physical taking care of them but also the well being they will or will not have as teenagers and then as adults.
From where you stand, it may be very scary, (or not) but it is really awesome; not only the baby-young kid part but also when they are teenagers and you see them growing and becoming individuals that you love and respect whether they are the same or different from you. It all just grows you somehow.
Together we will float like angels.........
In the moment that you left the room, the album started skipping, goodbye to beauty shared with the ones that you love.........
http://www.myspace.com/brain_of_c
All things within limits, I think in America television becomes the babysitter to our children. Television a trend towards why violence amongst our youth is getting higher and higher.
The violence is getting worse with all that is shown on TV.
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
Sir Mike McCready is....THE MASTER!!! WAHHH!!!
EVENFLOW PSYCHOS H.N.I.C~FEEL THE FLOW!!!
"Pearl Jam fans are obsessed, they'd see the boys in HELL if tickets were sold."-CROJAM95
It takes balls to put out a UKE album!
come to papa.
http://www.myspace.com/brain_of_c
Sir Mike McCready is....THE MASTER!!! WAHHH!!!
EVENFLOW PSYCHOS H.N.I.C~FEEL THE FLOW!!!
"Pearl Jam fans are obsessed, they'd see the boys in HELL if tickets were sold."-CROJAM95
It takes balls to put out a UKE album!