A thread for parents allowing a wide variety of media........

[hillfarm]

You know one part about allowing media is that kids might think that being gay, fi, is OK. There's that very lovely & generous Ellen, and that cute and loving couple on Modern Family with a baby.

 

If you believe that sort of acceptance displeases God, you wouldn't allow any media. It could happen: " Hey look, mom! Will is nice and cares about Grace. Being gay is cool! I am going to be gay!" Or, "Ellen is so funny and likes the same American Idol I do, I want to be a lesbian!"

 

It's possible for a plain yellow pumpkin to become a golden carriage. It's possible.

 

???

My dd has has seen and heard things much worse than the media we allow her, up close and in person right in our community or extended family. She has not as of yet tried to emulate any of it and usually describes it with such insight and truth, it is hard to believe an 11yo could have such deep thoughts. I have no fears that just because she sees something we believe is inappropriate (drinking, smoking, recreational drug use, lying, cheating, disobedience, etc.) presented as part of a winsome character in the media that she would be easily swayed to accept it. I am raising a strong, discerning, and hopefully wise young woman who will neither be taken in by nor faint dead away the first time she meets a lesbian IRL. :)

Edited January 7, 2010 by hillfarm

[Jumping In Puddles]

\ IMO, if she had allowed some less than stellar items to be part of their regular diet, perhaps they wouldn't have been so driven to gobble them up behind her back.

 

 

This example is given quite often and it makes me cringe because my son acts as if he has never seen sweets before whenever there is anything remotely sugary around. He does not have a restricted diet and I am a trained pastry chef so we are always making something sweet at home! Still, my son would eat a stranger's half eaten cupcake if I let him. :svengo: He would lick frosting off a restaurant table if I let him :ack2: Our neighbor has a shelf full of cookies and crackers and candy, she told me her son won't over indulge in it because it is always there and it is not a problem. My son would over indulge every single day. Sometimes a kid needs to be limited because they won't limit themselves. My daughter doesn't care that much. She will often say "no thank you" to dessert and my son looks at her as if she has lost her mind! :glare:

 

Well, all I can say is

 

We LOOOOOOOVE Sponge Bob Squarepants. :001_wub:

 

I don't get how all the media-bashing focuses on that show. He is a very nice character, a good friend, a hard-worker. Yes, it's silly. But with all the real garbage out there, how is Sponge Bob the mascot for horrible media?

 

Sponge Bob the show doesn't really bother me but the marketing and merchandising of SB is really annoying!

 

Edited for facetious clarity: smirk, wink, giant grin, tongue out smilies.

 

:D Oh good, then I can edit out my :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

[Amy loves Bud]

 

 

Sponge Bob the show doesn't really bother me but the marketing and merchandising of SB is really annoying!

 

 

Which is why we watch it on video and don't have commerical tv. Netflix and Hulu are our friends.

[Matryoshka]

Compared to some of the hyper-sheltering examples on this thread, I'm definitely in the middle. As I said on the Pop Culture thread, now that my kids are getting older I'm getting progressively more lenient. I still find 95% of modern prime-time tv to be too much, but that won't be always. The number and type of movies I'm allowing is growing ever larger, and I'm sure by the time they leave home I won't be filtering much at all - they have to learn to be discerning for themselves. When they were 2 it was no media, but when they're 19 and on their own it will be all up to them. Progressively more will be allowed so it's a gradual transition and not a big jump near the end.

 

My older two already have email accounts and I told the younger she could have one too when she was 11. But they talk to me about (and even forward me) some things their friends send them. Yeah, a lot of it is pop culture stuff and we've had some good conversations about it. They mostly think it's stupid - except for the cutsie photos of animals other kids are forever sending them. They've also spent some time on Skype - they got accounts when they did their Chinese lessons.

 

I'm not sure I'll ever allow FB, but they're still only 11. So far it hasn't come up... but I have adult friends and family on FB who aren't handling it well (both as a time suck and being catty/drama). I'm not on FB myself, but I've still heard stories through the grapevine. Yeesh. Guess I'll have to cross that bridge when/if it ever shows up in my path...

[MariannNOVA]

This example is given quite often and it makes me cringe because my son acts as if he has never seen sweets before whenever there is anything remotely sugary around. He does not have a restricted diet and I am a trained pastry chef so we are always making something sweet at home! Still, my son would eat a stranger's half eaten cupcake if I let him. :svengo: He would lick frosting off a restaurant table if I let him :ack2: Our neighbor has a shelf full of cookies and crackers and candy, she told me her son won't over indulge in it because it is always there and it is not a problem. My son would over indulge every single day. Sometimes a kid needs to be limited because they won't limit themselves. My daughter doesn't care that much. She will often say "no thank you" to dessert and my son looks at her as if she has lost her mind! :glare:

 

 

OMH!!!!! I am not a trained pastry chef, but my maternal grand-father was. My son would do everything you mention above and MORE!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Mariann

[LibraryLover]

Lucky for me though, it would not be the end of the world for me if either of my kids turned out gay, so I don't have that one to worry about :)

 

:001_smile: It's so far off my list of worries it's not even on my list of worries.

[LibraryLover]

Netflix and Hulu are our friends.

 

 

:iagree:Even Jesus would watch Hulu.:D

[Jumping In Puddles]

Which is why we watch it on video and don't have commerical tv. Netflix and Hulu are our friends.

 

:cool: It is the Sponge Bob cereal, t-shirts, backpacks, notebooks, crackers, pencils that bug me. The show, without commercials, is fun. :) All the merchandising about sponge bob seems more prevalent than anything else (well, aside from Hannah Montana! :lol:)

[hillfarm]

This example is given quite often and it makes me cringe because my son acts as if he has never seen sweets before whenever there is anything remotely sugary around.

 

 

 

Thanks for reminding me of this. My dd often acts like a seagull in public, ravenous for any food at all--like we don't feed her here at home!

 

But the kids I was describing weren't just interested in getting the sweets, there was the deceptive nature of their behavior. When Mama was around, they were not interested. But when Mama's back was turned, look out! I do feel that the forbidden fruit syndrome and a major sugar addiction were both in play in their case. (There were issues other than food, for example, her dh confided to my dh that even though she was ALL about herbal medicine, he was sick and tired of a lingering sinus infection and had snuck off to the Dr. in another town for treatment.:glare: Her rigidity was creating all sorts of subterfuge in that family.)

[Jumping In Puddles]

 

OMH!!!!! I am not a trained pastry chef, but my maternal grand-father was. My son would do everything you mention above and MORE!!!!!

 

Mariann

 

:lol: I was holding back! LOL Good to know he's not alone!

[Amy loves Bud]

You know one part about allowing media is that kids might think that being gay, fi, is OK. There's that very lovely & generous Ellen, and that cute and loving couple on Modern Family with a baby.

 

If you believe that sort of acceptance displeases God, you wouldn't allow any media. It could happen: " Hey look, mom! Will is nice and cares about Grace. Being gay is cool! I am going to be gay!" Or, "Ellen is so funny and likes the same American Idol I do, I want to be a lesbian!"

 

It's possible for a plain yellow pumpkin to become a golden carriage. It's possible.

 

Edited for facetious clarity: smirk, wink, giant grin, tongue out smilies.

 

Well, if your children ever watched Teletubbies, that cat is out of the bag, so no worries. :D

[Avila]

Well, if your children ever watched Teletubbies, that cat is out of the bag, so no worries. :D

 

Now there is a show I hate! That isn't why. I didn't let my littles watch Barney, the Wiggles or Teletubbies because the shows were so inane, and more importantly, because they didn't watch TV alone at that age and I did not want to have to watch those shows with them!

[joannqn]

This example is given quite often and it makes me cringe because my son acts as if he has never seen sweets before whenever there is anything remotely sugary around.

 

Your son and I would get along great...which is why I try really hard to hide my sugar issues from my kids. I'm trying to moderate them so they don't end up like me.

[Carrie12345]

We rarely censor any media. When we do, it's usually for adult programming disguised as kid-tv (Most episodes, but not all, of The Family Guy, that stupid dentist show on Nickelodeon, and other things like that).

 

Despite all of that, I seem to be one of the real hard-@sses in most groups when it comes to behavior. I find that very interesting. My kids can watch jerky stuff, but they aren't allowed to act that way. Many of their friends aren't allowed to watch jerky stuff, but they are allowed to act that way! :confused:

[justamouse]

She was being facetious!:D

 

ZOMG, I didn't pick that up! Sorry!

 

LOL Thank you. I thought the plain yellow pumpkin becoming a golden carraige gave it away, so I left out all the :D;):lol:.

 

I won't make that mistake again!

 

No, it was my fault. I was in serious mode and wasn't perceptive to the cues. But now that I went back and read it again it made me laugh.

 

:iagree:Even Jesus would watch Hulu.:D

 

Now I think I love you. ;) I think he'd especially like Glee. Dd and I watch it all the time and sing ALL of the songs together so the parrot can join in.

 

IT's making me take out some smillies so I can post. There's an limit to 11? Huh.

[JeneralMom]

Does letting your 3, 5, and 6 year olds sit in bed with you watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer count as lenient :tongue_smilie:. We have strange rules - things that show people being rude and mean are out, but in terms of sexuality, violence, etc. I don't censor too much. We don't like them watching gratuitous sex and violence, but if it has a place in the story, then we are okay.

 

I was raised in a very liberal household in a very liberal province, so that colours alot of my parenting - my parents never cared what we were watching (except that one memorable time when I accidentally got onto a porn and didn't realize until my father sat down with me and watched for a minute before springing up and changing the channel) and never pre-read the books we read or pre-listened to the music we listened to. My father's view of it all is that for something to have "power" you have to give it the "power" so he swore in front of us and watched violent movies because if the shock value is gone, then the power is gone.

[Amy loves Bud]

I wish I could add "and low-rise jeans" to the title of this thread.

:D

 

And hair extensions.;)

[LG Gone Wild]

Yes. On the one hand, we give the media way too much power and underestimate the home environment- most kids are not going to turn gay no matter how acceptable it appears on TV. On the other, the media can be insidious in what it does place in our minds- adults as well as children.

 

Lucky for me though, it would not be the end of the world for me if either of my kids turned out gay, so I don't have that one to worry about :)

 

Bold is mine....which is why I restrict a great deal. Most of it is just plain idiotic, crass, superficial, and materialistic. I am a snob, not a prude. (sorta) :tongue_smilie:

[kalanamak]

The other thread is a great support from essentially a self-select group. It is logical and expected that in a classical homeschooling forum, a significant percentage of parents would disallow much popular media and engagement with pop culture.

.

 

I am in the disallow group right now. When kiddo is old enough to do at least 50% of his school work independently, and shows the maturity to do it (for me, this was age 10), THEN I will be in your camp. My "disallow" now is that I suspect that when little kids are kept little kids until they are over 9, they grow up with a little more trust in the world as a "good" place, a little more sense of a moral code of gentleness. I will probably get bombarded for that opinion, but the "seen it all, done it all, know it all" kids of 6 and 7 I've know have grown up to be restless, hard, unhappy adults. A small sample, but one of the perks of waiting until your 40's to give birth: I've seen my peer's kids grow up!!