Yesterday I took Frick and Frack to the Toledo Museum of Art. Going down Monroe street I was caught by a light. While sitting there Wyatt looks out his window and spots a gentlemen's club. He was so enamored by their sign on the building that it sparked an enthusiasm that I had to quickly extinguish. Here's our conversation:
Wyatt: Oh wow! Mom! Look! Lets go to that place! It looks neat!
Me: (looking at what he spotted) Oh, we don't want to go there, the art museum is a lot better
Wyatt: Are you sure? They have a better sign than the art museum
Me: Sometimes looks can be deceiving and trick you into liking things that you shouldn't
Wyatt: Can we just go there to try it?
Me: No
Wyatt: Why? Is it just for girls? There's a pretty girl on the sign
Me: Because I said so. It isn't for girls or boys, it's not a good place. It's a bad place
Wyatt: Why is it a bad place? It has a nice girl on it
**This has to be the longest light in city of Toledo, j/s**
Me: Because they don't teach you about God, and I don't want you to go somewhere that won't teach you about God.
Wyatt: But I don't want them to teach me about God, I want them to teach me about girls
**finally the light turns green, Thank you, Jesus!**
Me: All you need to know about girls is that God created them, we are not going there, the sign is tricking you to want to go there just because its pretty. You have to be careful, Satan tricks people like that.
Wyatt: That sneaky lil satan
Me: ***exhaustive sigh***
A year ago I would have been able to say that place was closed, or just a simple 'no' would do the trick. Now that he's learning to read, wanting to explore EVERYTHING, i'm finding i'm doing a lot more explaining. UGH! I've read a few articles this week about parents having to explain adult things to their children b/c society is exposing them to adult material.
Dish Network had an interruption of their Lilo & Stitch movie, it showed 6 minutes of porn and then flipped back to the movie. Could you imagine?!?! I wouldn't want to explain that to my children!! Also, in Toledo (I think) there was a business with a sign out front that said 'honk of you're horny' and parents had children asking what it meant.
I'll admit both of these had me laffing at first, but once I realized that the result was parents seeing their four and five year olds acting out what the saw during the Lilo & Stitch movie, and parents trying to avoid explaining adult material, I kinda felt bad that many adults don't have respect for the kids in our community. Children have a special innocence about them, and because of the selfishness of irresponsible individuals, they are stealing bits and pieces of these children's good childhood nature.
I used to think people who had dvd players in their vehicles where spoiled, showing off that they can spend their money wastefully, but now i'm thinking that idea is truly amazing! It'll keep their children's eyes where they belong, in a kid friendly zone.
I'm curious what others have done to distract their lil Einsteins when they see inappropriate material. Any suggestions?
I
3 comments:
Wow! I can't believe what happened during the showing of Lilo and Stitch!! That is horrible and completely inexcusable!
I think it is extremely important to protect our sons and daughters. Many kids are in to porn as young as 6,7, 8 years old. It's sad. But it can start with things like underwear ads. (JCPenny catalogs that come home... not safe.)
The hardest thing is that images can get seared into our memories forever.
Of course, when we are out we can't protect them the same we can in our home... and that's where it's important to educate and discipline. (Discipline is so much more than correcting a wrong behavior... it's also teaching a right behavior and helping form their thoughts and morals.)
I hate when I get caught off guard and unprepared... like you did! But at least you are smart enough to prepare yourself for the next time.
Or maybe you could even bring it up during a devotional time. Use the ten commandments. Talk about living to please God. I've tried to move away from telling my kids not to do something because it won't please God... instead I ask them to think about it and pray about it and decide if it is something God would want them to do. When the decision is theirs it sticks better. (Of course... that is where discipline becomes HUGE!)
You just might have to explain to him on a kid level that God made women and yes they are pretty and beautiful but he wants us to respect them as well and the things you find in the store are not respectful at all.
Good luck! I hope I don't have to explain those things for a long time!
Of course I did just tell my husband the other day that I am pretty sure we are going to have to sit my kids down and talk about swear words... and then we are going to actually SAY the words to my kids so they know what they are and that they are not words that we use. It will be weird for sure haha but I just feel that this is how we are supposed to deal with it. In our new neighborhood we hear those words ALL. THE. TIME. I figure better to prepare them then to not know they are using them. We'll see!
Post a Comment