Are you mistakenly corrupting your kids? 4 errors NOT to make
Article By Lori Harris // EEW Mgaazine // Parenting
Clearly, you love your children and want to do right by them. But in this day and age, as we watch America’s moral decline, it seems even harder to raise your children to be healthy, balanced, spiritually-nourished adults.
To help you avoid mistakenly corrupting the eyes, ears, minds and hearts of your kiddos, EEW Online is pointing out 4 mistakes many parents make that you should try to avoid.
#1 You let your children watch your favorite shows and movies: Sensuality, violence and the basest human behaviors are often depicted on Netflix, Network television, and cable shows. If you allow your little ones to watch along with you, their young minds cannot always understand the difference between fiction and reality. Simply put, some stuff, they don’t need to see.
The case of two 12-year-olds stabbing a friend multiple times to impress a fake Internet boogeyman proves this point. You might be surprised by how defenseless some youths are against the things they see onscreen and online. They can’t help but be influenced.
#2 You don’t monitor their shows or Internet activity: Snooping parents rock! Just because programming is marketed to children doesn’t mean it is necessarily for children. Simply because YouTube doesn’t put an age restriction on it, doesn’t mean it’s suitable for non-adults. Some sitcoms, vlogs, cartoons and full-feature animated films are pretty raunchy and explicit. So snoop away!
You need to monitor, pre-screen and research their entertainment. This is not optional. Just as we child-proof our homes when our babies are small to keep them from being electrocuted by an uncovered socket, child-proofing their entertainment is just as necessary while they remain young. Impressionable minds must be protected.
#3 You let them listen to raunchy music: Popular and commercially successful (but very sexually graphic and vulgar) rapper, Cardi B, once said, “I’m not here to raise your kids and your grandkids. The only kids I’m going to need to answer to are going to be mine!” And she’s right.
Stars aren’t meant to be our children’s moral guides and role models; we are. Besides, if some of today’s top musical lyrics make even adults blush, what are children to do with that type messaging? It is our duty to snoop and filter out and censor as necessary—and yes, this includes music videos as well. Okurr!
#4 You’re too loose with your lips: As a youngster, when my aunts got together and noticed me ear-hustling, they would say, “Stay out of grown folks’ business!” I hated that. It meant I was busted and banished from the room where all the “hot tea” was being spilled.
But now that I’m an adult, I find myself saying the very same thing to my own children. Every conversation is not for small ears, so button those lips when appropriate, and be aware of your surroundings at all times. Otherwise, your ear-hustling, eavesdropping, staying-in-grown-folks-business children will repeat something at the worst time and embarrass you.
Making sure your children are absorbing age-appropriate music, content and conversations is not always easy—especially thanks to the Internet. While you can’t monitor and sanitize everything, you absolutely can do your best not to leave vulnerable children open and susceptible to everything.
When God sees you trying, He’ll step in and help you keep those precious treasures He gave you as pure as possible in a corrupt world.
