Parenting : Guiding Our Child’s Heart and Controlling Exposure to the Media
At the start of this new year, I’d like to share what I feel is super important to us all who are parents.
It’s about being actively involved in our children’s lives.
Involved in GUIDING our children’s hearts.
Now how do we do this?
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This post is btw inspired by this radio programme.
I totally encourage you to read the full transcript or listen to it too HERE!
Lots of insightful thoughts and tips from wise and experienced fellow moms!
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Here are some of the points (excerpts) I’d like to share:
> Importance of creating an environment that is conducive to spiritual growth.
So many parents today mindlessly expose their children to all kinds of worldly and unbiblical things, philosophies, world views, and then wonder why their children turn twenty or twenty-one or twenty-five and say, “I’m not interested in Christian things anymore.” Well, the children are responding to the appetite that you’ve cultivated in them.
…now the enemy can come through your walls invisibly through the wireless. It can come through your children’s cell phones … negative influences are shockingly entering our homes, and affecting our children.
Children are being so influenced by the world these days. It used to be that you could guard your house so much easier than you could today, because now the enemy can come through your walls invisibly through the wireless. It can come through your children’s cell phones and just influences in general. Today, the media and all negative influences are shockingly entering our homes, and affecting our children.
And the big problem is, many parents are simply not aware of the huge danger such exposure to the media has on their children.
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> Our children cannot be put in a closet and raised with NO consciousness of what’s going on in the world.
We can’t just isolate our children, and tell them, “You can’t have any exposure to the world.”
Our children have to be insulated, but not isolated.
We want to create an environment that our children don’t have this constant access and exposure.
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> Controlling our children’s exposure to the Media
– The TV
It really must NOT be on, even with ‘innocent shows’ that are on basic TV without us being aware of what’s on. Even cartoons that we think are harmless, they could promote messages that are so subtle that are really anti-Christian and anti-Bible.
Parents often complain about the difficulties of their kids and what they’re exposed to, but then they’re FUNDING it all
– The iPad, iPod and music
Parents often complain about the difficulties of their kids and what they’re exposed to, but then they’re FUNDING it all.
Parents download games that promote violence and vanity (or just download without checking what the game is like, etc).
They let their children freely download whatever games they wish without monitoring what they’re exposed to.
They allow their young children to listen to songs with obscenities (or songs that promote hatred, love for money, etc)
– The internet and Youtube
Parents allow their children to freely surf the internet and Youtube, all on their own, which is super duper dangerous btw, because it means their children can at ANYTIME be exposed to texts / images / songs that are totally NOT age appropriate.
(I need not be overly specific here, as I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. Even Youtube videos often use ‘obscene’ thumbnail images to lure people to click and watch the videos!)
And you know and I know, once we SEE, HEAR or READ something, especially ‘rubbish’ ones, it’s generally stuck in our minds, and there’s nothing we can do to ‘erase’ that.
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As parents we CAN control the kinds of exposure our children get, yes?
Gee.
It’s really not easy being a parent today.
So many challenges, and the ‘danger’ is right in our homes too!
Yes I know, … since we live in this era, we cannot escape or be isolated from the media and all completely.
BUT, as parents we CAN control the kinds of exposure our children get, yes?
We CAN control how much TV they watch, the kinds of programmes they see, the kind of music they listen to while they’re with us, the kinds of games they play, how much time they spend playing games on the iPad / phone / computer, etc.
Especially when they’re still young.
Yes, it’s a daily challenge!
And yes, it’s tough.
(I’m still learning to do things better by the day!)
But let’s try to do better this year, by firstly realising and acknowledging the danger of it all, and the utter NEED to be actively involved and present in our children’s lives everyday, and in guiding our children’s hearts.
It’s the start of the new year.
Let’s do it together, parents.
May God help us all.
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Erm, my son is 2 1/2 years old.
He has ipad to play but we control of what games to installed. Previously we downloaded some games, like CSR racing or helicopter, but then uninstalled because of them too realistic and there’re some violance elements.
We do not installed those shoot-and-win games (I’ll call it idiot games) like zuma, bejewelled etc.
At home, we have no satellite TV thus no TV programs. we just have Disney cartoon DVDs and some Chinese classical teaching. SanZiJing, DiZiGui (if you know) and poems.
We also banned one short film on DVD which I blogged about this previously at here. http://ahjianbaba.blogspot.com/2012/07/banned.html
AhJian recently posted..牙牙学语之阿字辈
Thanks for sharing, AhJian.
So true that these days, games / cartoons may look ‘friendly’ but if you thoroughly check, it can be so NOT age-appropriate, or they may teach values that are not positive.
And, kids tend to copy and absorb what they hear, see (and play on gadgets). The younger they are, the less they know how to discern what’s good and bad, what’s NOT to copy, etc (and naturally, this is exactly the time when we parents need to step in and be their guide)
That is so true that we need to control what our kids are exposed to from TV, internet to other medias. One thing though that I strongly believe is to teach our kids to think for themselves once they are exposed to variety of information. Let them use their critical thinking and logic to decide for themselves. Granted, some could lead them to become non-believers and I know that’s every christian parents’ nightmare but having kids who can process information and think for themselves logically is as important
Thank God and thank you for your very kind and timely reminder because my children are also exposed to some extent of the harmful media which can easily poison them at present and destroy them in the future, so parents must be caring and responsible enough to supervise their children closely to guide them discern good and bad, right and wrong.
Thanks for sharing and leaving me a note, David.
Yes, I too feel the wisdom to ‘discern’ what’s good and bad, and what’s right and wrong is necessary for the children to learn …
Thanks for sharing your thought on this.
Yes, I agree with you that the kids need to be taught how to think for themselves too (the wisdom to ‘discern’). It’s a gradually acquired skill (which all parents hope their children will have eventually). I guess, this is where our constant and consistent guidance since they are very young is crucial too..