In Your Sons & Daughters' Shoes

        Recently, I stood in a cashier’s line waiting to cash for some items I had just chosen from the shelves of a multi-purpose center store. While I stood there I noticed a few children – girls dancing to some music. The style of one of the girl’s dance is what first caught my attention and that of another young lady standing right behind me. The dance was similar to that of the popular pop, R&B, and hip-hop artists. It was then evident that television had been a major influence on her life. But something else was even more disturbing than that. She was wearing a skirt that was more than half way up her thigh and a shirt that exposed at least four inches of her stomach and waist. As the young lady and I discussed the dressing we identified the dressing as irresponsible parenting. Why should parents allow nine or ten year olds to leave their homes dressed in such a manner? When they allow that style of dressing at such a young age, how can they then try to discourage it later in life? Many parents make that sad mistake with the view that when children are young they could dress anyhow, but that when they become teenagers they will teach them what they should and should not wear. Children at such a young age should be taught even then what decent dressing is, and they should never leave their parents’ homes dressed skimpily.

Another area in which parents and children normally disagree is in the choice of food. Most children develop a liking for sweet, salty, crunchy or pretty looking foods. Candies and chocolates, ice cream, sweet biscuits with cream are among some of the things that they like the most. It is also becoming a common practice for many children to choose sodas over fruit drinks. Children know very little about nutrition. If allowed to make their choice in terms of food, most of them would choose the wrong foods or things that are not very good for them nutritionally. Therefore, parents need to take control of what their children put into their bodies. This does not mean that parents should never allow children to choose a type of food that is appealing to them; however, their power to choose what they eat should be limited.

If parents want to give children the chance to choose, then it would be wise to choose the options and then have them make a choice. For example, if a family goes into a restaurant for lunch and there are a variety of fruit and other nutritious drinks as well as a variety of sodas, the parents can ask the child to choose one of the fruit drinks. That way, both the parents and the child can be happy. By limiting the choice to the nutritious drinks, the parents can be sure that whatever the choice, it would be beneficial to the child. The child will be happy knowing that he/she had the opportunity to choose the drink. In this case, the parents have helped to guide the child into making a wise choice.

Television is one of the things that takes most of children’s time these days. According to Kyle Boyse, B.N., et al., “The average child spends more time watching TV than in school. On average, kids spend about 20 or more hours each week watching TV, which is more time than is spent in any other activity besides sleeping”. Children normally spend a lot of time looking at television because it is entertaining, exciting and appealing. Surprisingly, I know one boy whose television experience is incredible. Although he is just about ten years old, his only interest in television is news. I even had the feeling that something was wrong with him when his sister revealed this shocking information. This is far from normal since most children spend more time looking at movies, cartoons or other television shows because they find the news as boring.            

Should children be allowed to look at television without guidance and or supervision? Without any apology I say, “NO!” Have you spent any time examining the things that are on television lately? Many of the stations and companies whose initial aim was to educate and to inform have now changed with the intent of persuading minds to accept certain views, ideas, practices and lifestyles. Numerous lifestyles demonstrated on television today are not those that we envision our children adopting as they develop. Many of these views and practices are evil and negative; many of them are of a nature, which will eventually destroy the good efforts of many parents who have tried their best to instill good, Godly values in their children.