I have a confession to make. I miss living in la la land. I'm not talking about that big Hollywood extravaganza of a movie that they all patted themselves on the back about. I'm talking about the la la land of my childhood. The land of my Mom being home waiting for me when I got home from school and my knowing she was always there for me. The one where my Dad would go to work every day and come home at night and we would sit around the table, as a family, and eat dinner. It was the land where I was allowed to be a child and my parents actually did this thing called "shielding" me from the horrors of the world. I couldn't tell you what their political parties were, who they voted for nor what their opinions were on the majority of hot topics of the day. They taught me right from wrong and how to be safe and how to treat others with respect. You know, the important things.
I don't know when it happened. I guess with everything else it was a slow change from the more simple days of yesteryear to the increasingly chaotic and often disturbing times that we live in today. What I do know is that in my (almost) 60 years of being on this planet I never thought twice about the safety of my child as I sent him off to school, nor my own when I sat in church on Sundays. I strolled the streets of Manhattan, sat in movie theaters, went to clubs and attended concerts without a scintilla of a thought that my life could be in peril by doing the things that took me out of my life for a brief respite. What I do know is that it must be terrifying to be a parent of a young child today. It seems virtually impossible to shield them from everything that is being thrown at them these days. Last night I was channel surfing, during a commercial, and I came across a new comedy on ABC. The scene was a kid, about 12 years old, that was talking to his Dad. The kid told him that he kept a "flow chart" on his sister's cycles so that he could avoid her at certain times of the month. Seriously?? This is comedy? This is the type of garbage t.v. that we are allowing our kids to watch? How sad.
In the past few days I've seen 3 kids glued to video games, all 5 or under, with the most shocking being an infant. She wasn't more than 6 months old and she was lying on a blanket on the floor screaming her lungs out. A woman handed her a cellphone and the baby stopped crying. The woman took it away and the kid started to scream again. It was repeated a few times with the person taking the video laughing through the entire episode. All I could think of was how this child will have the attention span of a gnat and how damaging the screen is to those delicate new eyeballs of hers. Hey, maybe she will surprise me and become the future Bill Gates but sadly I think the odds are against that. The future I see for her includes poor vision at the very least.
Last night I also heard about the new 3-year-old pre-K starting in NYC under the DOE. Instead of pushing more years of standardized education on our babies, why not concentrate on the QUALITY of their education in the grades they attend now? There is a vast difference in quantity of years vs quality and sadly many of the schools in NYC are failing our children. Are our children going to school to get a great education or are the schools becoming a baby-sitting service for the parents that both have to work to keep up with the cost of living in this country? I just don't get it, but I would love to see how they are going to get 24 3 year olds to nap at the same time, IF they are even afforded one. Heck, even I obviously need one now as you have probably deduced by my rambling rant.
I've even heard tiny tykes giving their opinions on President Trump and Mrs. Clinton that were filled with expletives. God help us.
Is it too late or can we turn the tides to at least try a little harder to let our children be children for as long as they can? The world is too harsh a place to be crashing into their realities at such young ages. Disconnect them from social media and video games and explore books and plays and movies that are age appropriate for them. Let them experience the good things in life through their own eyes instead of those of a hand-held device. Bake with them and prepare meals together. Play games as a family. Do arts and crafts, take them hiking, travel so that they learn about different cultures. You don't have to leave the country to do that. The U.S. is filled with all kinds of arts, entertainment, museums and restaurants of multi-cultures. Take advantage of it. Most of all pray as a family. Attend services on Sundays and get involved in your church community, which also has programs for you and the kids. Keep the adult stuff out of their world and let them catch their breath and become well-rounded individuals without all the noise of celebrities. You are raising your child and instilling their values into them, not Kim Kardashian nor Miley Cyrus. They have their own things to take care of and influencing your child shouldn't be one of them.
I'm not a therapist, (just an opinionated older, wiser, person with experience as a parent and someone that was thisclose to being certified in early childhood development), but telling children things that they can't handle, or plain old shouldn't know, will just stress them out and scare them. There isn't any reason to do that.
With a little bit of luck and planning you too can create a la la land for your child. You will all be much better off for it. We owe it to our children to protect them as much as we can. It is nobody else's job, but ours.
Okay, I'm stepping off the soapbox...
Have a good week.
Mare
I don't know when it happened. I guess with everything else it was a slow change from the more simple days of yesteryear to the increasingly chaotic and often disturbing times that we live in today. What I do know is that in my (almost) 60 years of being on this planet I never thought twice about the safety of my child as I sent him off to school, nor my own when I sat in church on Sundays. I strolled the streets of Manhattan, sat in movie theaters, went to clubs and attended concerts without a scintilla of a thought that my life could be in peril by doing the things that took me out of my life for a brief respite. What I do know is that it must be terrifying to be a parent of a young child today. It seems virtually impossible to shield them from everything that is being thrown at them these days. Last night I was channel surfing, during a commercial, and I came across a new comedy on ABC. The scene was a kid, about 12 years old, that was talking to his Dad. The kid told him that he kept a "flow chart" on his sister's cycles so that he could avoid her at certain times of the month. Seriously?? This is comedy? This is the type of garbage t.v. that we are allowing our kids to watch? How sad.
In the past few days I've seen 3 kids glued to video games, all 5 or under, with the most shocking being an infant. She wasn't more than 6 months old and she was lying on a blanket on the floor screaming her lungs out. A woman handed her a cellphone and the baby stopped crying. The woman took it away and the kid started to scream again. It was repeated a few times with the person taking the video laughing through the entire episode. All I could think of was how this child will have the attention span of a gnat and how damaging the screen is to those delicate new eyeballs of hers. Hey, maybe she will surprise me and become the future Bill Gates but sadly I think the odds are against that. The future I see for her includes poor vision at the very least.
Last night I also heard about the new 3-year-old pre-K starting in NYC under the DOE. Instead of pushing more years of standardized education on our babies, why not concentrate on the QUALITY of their education in the grades they attend now? There is a vast difference in quantity of years vs quality and sadly many of the schools in NYC are failing our children. Are our children going to school to get a great education or are the schools becoming a baby-sitting service for the parents that both have to work to keep up with the cost of living in this country? I just don't get it, but I would love to see how they are going to get 24 3 year olds to nap at the same time, IF they are even afforded one. Heck, even I obviously need one now as you have probably deduced by my rambling rant.
I've even heard tiny tykes giving their opinions on President Trump and Mrs. Clinton that were filled with expletives. God help us.
Is it too late or can we turn the tides to at least try a little harder to let our children be children for as long as they can? The world is too harsh a place to be crashing into their realities at such young ages. Disconnect them from social media and video games and explore books and plays and movies that are age appropriate for them. Let them experience the good things in life through their own eyes instead of those of a hand-held device. Bake with them and prepare meals together. Play games as a family. Do arts and crafts, take them hiking, travel so that they learn about different cultures. You don't have to leave the country to do that. The U.S. is filled with all kinds of arts, entertainment, museums and restaurants of multi-cultures. Take advantage of it. Most of all pray as a family. Attend services on Sundays and get involved in your church community, which also has programs for you and the kids. Keep the adult stuff out of their world and let them catch their breath and become well-rounded individuals without all the noise of celebrities. You are raising your child and instilling their values into them, not Kim Kardashian nor Miley Cyrus. They have their own things to take care of and influencing your child shouldn't be one of them.
I'm not a therapist, (just an opinionated older, wiser, person with experience as a parent and someone that was thisclose to being certified in early childhood development), but telling children things that they can't handle, or plain old shouldn't know, will just stress them out and scare them. There isn't any reason to do that.
With a little bit of luck and planning you too can create a la la land for your child. You will all be much better off for it. We owe it to our children to protect them as much as we can. It is nobody else's job, but ours.
Okay, I'm stepping off the soapbox...
Have a good week.
Mare
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