Provocatively dressed 8 yr olds in Contest

[plindboe]

And that's why we've made the decision to kick TV out of our home.

Makes me wonder whether your kids will be wholly unprepared for the real world when they one day leave your supervision and are confronted with all those issues they've been isolated from during their childhood.

I think it will be healthier if kids are aware of the different ethical opinions and problems in society. Of course one has to talk with them about it, to help them deal with it, so it's not an option for the lazy parent.

Peter

 

[Washington]

You're absolutely right. I did not qualify that because there is no qualification for it.

I'll even say it again: what children are taught today forms the basis for their behavior tomorrow.

It HELPS form the basis for their behavior tomorrow. Your statement implies it's the ONLY agent.

Actually, we do know it to be a fact.

So, you know for a fact that the "behavior [is absolutely] going to come back to haunt them when these little girls are fourteen and fifteen and sixteen." Amazing! When these little girls are fourteen and fifteen and sixteen they will unquestionably be haunted by their experience. Well . . . if nothing else, your hubris is amusing. And just who is this "we" you speak of?

Have you ever taken a child psych class?

Not positive, but I don't think so. Have you ever taken a class in logic or college English?

 

[silence_dogood]

Makes me wonder whether your kids will be wholly unprepared for the real world when they one day leave your supervision and are confronted with all those issues they've been isolated from during their childhood.

They don't appear to be hampered in any way. They're successful at school, they're successful in their jobs, they have healthy and active social lives...

In fact, I would say that by having grown up with a Biblical worldview and a Biblically based moral foundation, they are far more prepared to deal with life in the real world than their counterparts who did not.

By your logic, all of us who grew up in a time when these things would have been considered wildly inappropriate must be unprepared to deal with the real world but clearly, that is not the case.

 

[moonkitty]

Makes me wonder whether your kids will be wholly unprepared for the real world when they one day leave your supervision and are confronted with all those issues they've been isolated from during their childhood.

I think it will be healthier if kids are aware of the different ethical opinions and problems in society. Of course one has to talk with them about it, to help them deal with it, so it's not an option for the lazy parent.

Peter

While we have a TV in our home, we do not have cable, nor do we get any broadcast stations on it. We use to play the Wii and for watching movies.

I do not do this for any moral reasons. I was brought up without watchimg much tv, we always played outstide. Even as a kid I have very little interest in tv watching. There was always something way more fun to do than watch tv. My motto has always been I'd rather be out living life than watching someone else live a fake one for hours a day.

My kids are healthy, intellient, and well adjusted. We talk way more about things in my house hold than I in households were the kids spend 4+ hours a day infront of the tv. We do watch a bit of the news online, and we listen to NPR, and I encourgae reading about current events even though my children are 11 and 13. I think my children are way more aware of what is happening in the world than many adults. They are so not sheltered from any issues or current events. So I do not understand why one would have to watch tv to be prepared for life.

 

[PreachersWife2004]

Kids should be learning about society from their parents, not TV.

If my kids learned morality from TV, they'd end up thinking being pregnant at 16 is cool, that premarital sex is perfectly okay, that casual sex is okay, that basically whatever "feels good" is okay.

That's exactly the opposite message I want my kids to have.

 

[plindboe]

So I do not understand why one would have to watch tv to be prepared for life.

That wasn't what I said, though I can understand the confusion.

I'm concerned about the attitude that children should from isolated from any idea that one disagrees with. Of course I don't know the extend the above poster prohibits his children from contact with the outside world, but from the sound of it it does sound like his kids are turning out alright.

I think the fear that one's kids will become corrupted, and start sinning because they watch a sci-fi show with a homosexual character seems rather irrational to me. I worry how these kids will react when they enter the world and encounter homosexuals. Or what if it turns out that one of the kids is homosexual? That's a disaster waiting to happen.

These isolating mechanisms I think can cause problems later in life, and that's what my comment is about, I'm not talking TVs.

Peter

 

[silence_dogood]

That wasn't what I said, though I can understand the confusion.

I'm concerned about the attitude that children should from isolated from any idea that one disagrees with. Of course I don't know the extend the above poster prohibits his children from contact with the outside world, but from the sound of it it does sound like his kids are turning out alright.

Surely you can't mean me, because I never said anything like that or that we prohibit our children from contact with the outside world.

I think the fear that one's kids will become corrupted, and start sinning because they watch a sci-fi show with a homosexual character seems rather irrational to me.

Again, not even remotely what I said.

I worry how these kids will react when they enter the world and encounter homosexuals.

Very well, actually. One of my mentors in college was a homosexual and I remain close friends with him to this day. My kids love him to death.

We also have a good friend of our family's who "came out" as a homosexual about four years ago. They loved him before and nothing's changed.

One of my daughters' retailers is a lesbian couple and my daughters hosted them for dinner at our home. They got along very well.

So I'm not really sure I understand why my children are supposed to be so baffled by homosexuals, just because we choose not to watch certain TV shows.

Or what if it turns out that one of the kids is homosexual? That's a disaster waiting to happen.

Why? None of them are, but what if they were? They're little sinners, so why should it be such a shock that they would grow up to be big sinners?

As much as I love my children, I'm not under any illusions that they're not perfect. Gay or straight, they're still sinners and we would love them regardless.

So, again, I don't understand why it would be a "disaster waiting to happen" just because we choose not to watch a TV show.

These isolating mechanisms I think can cause problems later in life, and that's what my comment is about, I'm not talking TVs.

You say you're not talking TVs, but all of your strawmen and false assumptions are based on the fact that I said that we chose not to watch a TV show.

 

[plindboe]

I had you wrong then, silence_dogood, I apologize.

Peter

 

[JamesAH]

You know it's amazing how we as a society so easily blame things like TV for everything that is wrong when we should have the responsibility of teaching our children morality and integrity.

But yet it's so easy to blame something or someone else for our mistakes. My times have changed haven't they.

 

[silence_dogood]

You know it's amazing how we as a society so easily blame things like TV for everything that is wrong when we should have the responsibility of teaching our children morality and integrity.

But yet it's so easy to blame something or someone else for our mistakes. My times have changed haven't they.

I agree. And part of teaching our children morality and integrity is teaching them that a commitment to morality and integrity often means that you have to sacrifice some things that you like, such as television.

Television isn't responsible for everything that's wrong. I would even say that it isn't responsible for very many things that are wrong. However, what it does do is to take those things that are wrong and portray them as though they're normal and acceptable, thus sending that message to children.

What's more, the Bible is full of admonitions that er, admonish us to beware of what we watch and what we put into our bodies through our eyes and ears. You might think it's silly, but we Christians have an obligation to follow that.

 

[Washington]

Television isn't responsible for everything that's wrong. I would even say that it isn't responsible for very many things that are wrong. However, what it does do is to take those things that are wrong and portray them as though they're normal and acceptable, thus sending that message to children.

What things?

 

[silence_dogood]

What things?

The things I've been mentioning in my posts.

 

[Washington]

The things I've been mentioning in my posts.

err . . . okay.

Looks back through all of SD's posts and finds,

Post #1.

Little girls' dance routine
​

Post #18.

Red Skelton's last radio show
Ricky Ricardo
"Sixteen and Pregnant"
Rob Petrie and Laura
British sci-fi show with a homosexual "hero."
RFD
Blue Highway
Porter Wagoner Show
Ben Cartwright
John Wayne
Nancy Drew,
Laura Ingalls Wilder,
Brittany Spears
Hannah Montana.

​

I guess these are what you had in mind.
So now, just what is wrong with them, and in what way are they portrayed as though they're normal and acceptable.

 

[plindboe]

Curiously, teen pregnancies are higher in the red states; atheists and agnostics have the smallest divorce rates, and they're significantly higher among conservative christians; teens who take virginity pledges are more likely to engage in anal and oral sex; teens who've had abstinence only education have as many STD's as teens who haven't; the conservative, christian states consume more inappropriate content than the other states, Ohio being the biggest consumer.

It doesn't appear that teaching christian morality has the effect christians like to tell themselves.

Peter

 

[PreachersWife2004]

You know it's amazing how we as a society so easily blame things like TV for everything that is wrong when we should have the responsibility of teaching our children morality and integrity.

But yet it's so easy to blame something or someone else for our mistakes. My times have changed haven't they.

Personal responsibility is a fleeting virtue these days. Look at a lot of the threads here in N&CE - blaming everyone else for all the problems all the world.

TV certainly plays a huge role in it, though. I think back to my TV time as a kid and it was really limited. These days, kids are being raised by the electronic babysitter, so what they see on it does matter quite a bit. I remember my parents limited my brothers MTV viewing to one hour a day, and this was back when they were playing videos rather than all the garbage they play today. I don't even let my teenager watch MTV.

 

[lawtonfogle]

I saw the preformance,
Was pretty impressed with the dancing considering the age.

Speaking of talent, the ability to spin that many times with one leg in the air is something I really want to learn how to do, except I'm pretty sure I'll break at least one bone before I master it, if it is even possible to learn in at my age.

 

[PreachersWife2004]

Speaking of talent, the ability to spin that many times with one leg in the air is something I really want to learn how to do, except I'm pretty sure I'll break at least one bone before I master it, if it is even possible to learn in at my age.

I have to admit that I was thinking that those girls were pretty good for being 7 year olds. I also didn't realize that most of the moves they had were direct from Beyonce's video.

I think I like this video much better:

YouTube - Baby Dancing to Beyonce - ORIGINAL! - www.singlebabies.com - @babycory on Twitter

 

[lawtonfogle]

It's not a knee jerk exaggeration. Believe it or not, what children are taught when they're young does form the basis for their behavior as they get older.

Perhaps in those who stay morally/ethically immature, but in those who don't, they gain the ability to throw it off, though it can take a great deal of effort to through of deep socialization that something is inherently disgusting. Unless of course you really believe in determinism such that you positively think you can't change it, in which case why not just say the morals are genetically determined to begin with.

 

[brinny]

Don't know if this is the right board to post this on, so if the Mods want to move it, that is ok with me...

The TV and Internet have come a long wayz from the ole "Ozzie and Harriet shows I grew up with.
I just this on the news today and I must say, if this is what children are progessing to be like, then I can see even more cases of child sexual abuse and trafficking happening. As a parent, I would never let my kids perform in anything like this.
Any thoughts from others on this?

Little girls' provocative dance routine to 'Single Ladies' sparks fears of growing up too fast

Pedophiles had a field day with this one.

 

[lawtonfogle]

I shared this in another thread, but I recently heard an episode of Red Skelton's last radio show before he moved over to television. At the end, when he was giving his farewell speech and saying all of his thank yous, he said how grateful he was to have been invited as a guest into people's homes and stated that he was sorry if anything they had done had caused any offense. The only thing harder to imagine than Red Skelton doing anything to offend on his show is the idea of anyone in Hollywood today not wanting to offend somebody.

The idea among radio shows and in the early days of TV was that you were a guest in someone's home and should act accordingly.

Now, it's as if they go out of their way to "push the envelope" and be offensive. There was a time when Ricky Ricardo wasn't even allowed to tell people his wife was pregnant. Now, shows like "Sixteen and Pregnant" actually celebrate teen pregnancy. Where once, even married couples were not allowed to be shown in bed together (I guess if anybody asked, Rob Petrie just had sleep apnea that kept Laura awake), people routinely live together before marriage, marriage is mocked, and sexual promiscuity among children goes on without even raising an eyebrow.

Perhaps this is a backlash to the overly strict standards of yesteryear? If you tip the pendulum to far into the, for lack of a better word, conservative realm, it will likely swing the other way.

Not to mention, while people are up in arms about the increase in sexuality, from the older shows I have watched in the past (my father loves to watch many shows that were own when he was growing up), violence was a very acceptable thing to show, even if it was not necessarily morally approved of. I'm really confused on if showing a cowboy killing a couple of 'bad guys', even without the gore, is really less harmful than a simulated 'no naughty bits actually showing' sex scene.

Now, perhaps there are more shows without either sex or violence in them, but they can be pretty hard to come buy, and these normally still have some lesser form of immorality which really enforces the view that that form of immorality is not as bad, such as lying.