When I think back to my childhood and what TV shows I watched. I find it funny how different things are today…with the ratings, parental controls and people lobbying against shit that really would not make a difference if kids had better parenting.
Overall…I think it is all about the parenting…not what kids see or watch on TV.
When I was a kid, I watched:
Cartoons including; Underdog, The Shmoos, Scooby Doo, The Flinstones, Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour and Sylvester and Tweety
As well as; the A-Team, Land of the Lost, Eight is Enough, Hawaii Five-O, Hardcastle and McCormick, Beretta, CHIPS, Dukes of Hazard, Planet of the Apes, Starsky and Hutch, etc.
These days…I don’t know that parents (in general) would allow young kids to watch those shows….well, with the exception of Eight is Enough and a few of the cartoons. I saw something years ago that named the Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour and Sylvester and Tweety two of the most violent shows on TV. WTF?!
I guess I just don’t know why parents are not taking responsibility for their kids…and are just throwing the blame for their fucked up kids on TV and the entertainment industry. My feeling is that a kid (for the most part) can watch whatever …as long as the parents do their job teaching the child right and wrong, respect, and that they can talk with them about anything…the kid will be fine.
We don’t (again…for the most part) sensor anything that the kids watch and if they are watching something that is disturbing to them or that they don’t understand…we are there to openly discuss it with them.
I think that it is the kids that can’t (for whatever reason) talk to their parents and are left home in front of a TV with nobody teaching them about life…or the kids who's parents are so over protective that they can't do shit without mommy hovering and making all of the decisions...those are the ones who end up with the big problems.
PARENTS!!!!!! Schools don’t teach kids respect, honor, right and wrong and morals. They don’t reinforce the ‘family first’ mentality that I think all people should be taught. They don’t teach about peer pressure, gangs, the laws, how to communicate with parents.
THAT IS YOUR JOB!!!!
Stop blaming everyone else for your inability to spend quality time with your kids, communicate with them and teach them what they need to know to have a good life.
I propose we put a ban on sheltering children and fine parents who blame others for their kids fucking up or being complete sissies!
Overall…I think it is all about the parenting…not what kids see or watch on TV.
When I was a kid, I watched:
Cartoons including; Underdog, The Shmoos, Scooby Doo, The Flinstones, Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour and Sylvester and Tweety
As well as; the A-Team, Land of the Lost, Eight is Enough, Hawaii Five-O, Hardcastle and McCormick, Beretta, CHIPS, Dukes of Hazard, Planet of the Apes, Starsky and Hutch, etc.
These days…I don’t know that parents (in general) would allow young kids to watch those shows….well, with the exception of Eight is Enough and a few of the cartoons. I saw something years ago that named the Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour and Sylvester and Tweety two of the most violent shows on TV. WTF?!
I guess I just don’t know why parents are not taking responsibility for their kids…and are just throwing the blame for their fucked up kids on TV and the entertainment industry. My feeling is that a kid (for the most part) can watch whatever …as long as the parents do their job teaching the child right and wrong, respect, and that they can talk with them about anything…the kid will be fine.
We don’t (again…for the most part) sensor anything that the kids watch and if they are watching something that is disturbing to them or that they don’t understand…we are there to openly discuss it with them.
I think that it is the kids that can’t (for whatever reason) talk to their parents and are left home in front of a TV with nobody teaching them about life…or the kids who's parents are so over protective that they can't do shit without mommy hovering and making all of the decisions...those are the ones who end up with the big problems.
PARENTS!!!!!! Schools don’t teach kids respect, honor, right and wrong and morals. They don’t reinforce the ‘family first’ mentality that I think all people should be taught. They don’t teach about peer pressure, gangs, the laws, how to communicate with parents.
THAT IS YOUR JOB!!!!
Stop blaming everyone else for your inability to spend quality time with your kids, communicate with them and teach them what they need to know to have a good life.
I propose we put a ban on sheltering children and fine parents who blame others for their kids fucking up or being complete sissies!
14 comments:
To a degree I completely agree with you. Ultimately how your kids are as people the parent IS the only one to teach them what they need to know to survive...if not the parent a really great adult role model.
However, I'm way okay with sheltering my Child.
I don't need them to listen to a show that has the "F" word in it every other sentence...because I don't want them swearing, I think the less they hear or are around it the less they grow accustomed to hit as normal...once they become old enough to realize they have been "sheltered" they don't have a real need or aren't comfortable with swearing anyway. So it's a good thing!
Same for violence...I don't want them to become numb to seeing someone shot or someone being knifed or a head being ripped off! I want them to be shocked by it, disgusted over it.
So sheltering isn't so bad as long as you teach them it's out there. And like you said, right from wrong...they will turn out okay!
I completely agree!
And when it comes to T.V. I think setting some age-appropriate guidelines is appropriate. Obviously you dont want your 3 y/o watching Jersey Shore or Skinimax.
As for the older kids, if they do watch those shows - and they will even if it's not at home - it's the parents job to teach them whats appropriate behavior and whats not. My 18 y/o watches Jersey Shore for the entertainment value (and I cop to watching the Real Housewives) but she's not going to act like one of the cast memebers because of it - and neither am I!
theres a lot of sheltering that goes on these days, and it snot just Tv its everything. Kids aren't allowed ot have winners and losers in games at school so that no-one gets hurt, valentines cards were banned to stop kids feeling rejection, kids aren't allowed to play out unsupervised...the list goes on. We are creating a very scary generation of coddled kids who haven't learnt many of the big life lessons by the time they hit their teens.
I agree. It is to much sheltering. Every team has to be "winners" You have to get praise for doing half ass work. You see it all the time with kids that are over sheltered. We are seeing it over and over again with our 20 something kids friends. And the parents just scratch their heads. Umm, yeah it was you who did this to your kid is what I want to say.
Just be a parent, be responsible for your child. Don't make the school, the commuity, the tv, etc. be responsible for how your child turns out. Its ok to see the good, the bad and the ugly sometimes. Not everything through rose colored glasses.
Great post.
Tenter, I agree. I also think that we, as parents, need to prepare our children for what it's like to work hard and earn money in order to own a home, a car, put food on the table, etc.
i totally agree! i grew up on those cartoons too and i can't believe people now say they're too "bad" for kids to watch. btw, if you have satellite/cable check to see if your provider has the Boomerang channel. it has all the goodies from our childhood. my kids love it!
As a teacher and a mother, I wholeheartedly agree!
Amen brother.
AfreakingMEN!!!!!!
I think you do need to limit what they watch but more importantly the amount of time a kids sits in front of the tv, computer or xbox needs to be limited as well.
Sometimes I think it is easier for parents to use these implements as babysitting devices.
I want to give you a big sloppy kiss for this:
"PARENTS!!!!!! Schools don’t teach kids respect, honor, right and wrong and morals. They don’t reinforce the ‘family first’ mentality that I think all people should be taught. They don’t teach about peer pressure, gangs, the laws, how to communicate with parents. THAT IS YOUR JOB!!!!"
As a teacher, I could not agree more. I can't imagine saying to teachers what is said to me from time to time. Forget what the school would have done, Dad was waiting at home!
This is an awesome post, needed to be said, thanks much!
UP
Um, yeah. We too let our kids watch pretty much what they want (unless it's blatantly horrible or something). We live in a society where nobody takes responsibility for anything, including parents taking responsibility for their kids. Did you know it's hard to even find the Loony Toons collection in it's original form anymore? They altered a bunch of the racist ones. The one with Tom and Jerry at thanksgiving is the most obvious. They cut out the part where Jerry shoots the flaming arrow at tom and it burn him to a crisp. There's a second where he, tom, looks like he's in blackface. I figure, for the integrity of the work, that it should stay. parents need to explain it to their kids. Not pretend it doesn't exist, right?
I think the difference is that kids can now watch those shows on a loop over and over again. They focus on the violence and the bad deeds rather than the comeuppance and morality part.
As has been said, I think it's important that we watch with our kids to explain stuff to them and that's not going to happen if a kid is allowed to watch the same thing on repeat over and over cos that adult is going to be leaving the room rather than enforcing a change of programme and dealing with a 'scene'.
It's when we use tv as the babysitter that we start to see conflict with our parenting.
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