Teaching the Child

I might be digressing a bit from kid's media and more into how kids should be taught and I'm not one to really speak on how children should be taught, as I don't know a ton about kids; however I do know how my parent's methods of disciplining me have affected me.

I know when I was a child I was not allowed to watch Yugioh because it had 'demons' and my parents tried to discourage me from Pokemon but my brothers and I latched onto it and they let it slide. My parents aren't really the definition of a crazy Christian, but when I was younger they seemed to fit that description to a degree, primarily with what TV shows I could watch and that I couldn't say words like “shut up” “crap” and “hate” I was even discouraged from saying “darn” because it was too close to damn and “fudge” was a substitute for the f-word and therefore I couldn't say it.

I do know that I am the first child of three younger brothers to follow, so I've always been the guinea pig. I know my father did in fact spank me with a wooden spoon when I was young and wouldn't listen or did something wrong. He didn't do it when I was older, but it happened at some point nonetheless. I know as I got older there were disciplines of “removal of privileges” such as no hanging out with friends or no computer. I know when I didn't get good grades they'd try to set up plans that were meant to help me (spoiler alert they made everything worse.) And I do know that throughout my life I have felt disconnected from my dad because of how he disciplined me. I certainly thing some things helped, but in the bigger picture I think it may have done more harm than good. But I've digressed out of the world of the child, let me get back into that.

Nowadays society seems way too hyped up on political correctness. Children's shows have been ridiculed for making “offensive material” and taken heavy blows as a result of over sensitive parents. Even back in the early 2000s Spongebob was ridiculed for being bad for kids because it was too distracting and the parents made a huge fuss about it. But what they didn't take into account is that the show isn't meant to educate kids it's meant to entertain them, and when they did a study to see if it really did distract kids, they did it on 4 year olds when the show is meant for 6 year olds and up. My Little Pony made a clumsy pony with crossed-eyes that had a clumsy slur to her voice and parents exploded that it was making fun of mentally challenged children and the show was forced to change her voice and uncross her eyes as a result.

Nowadays parents try too hard to protect their kids. “Oh we don't want to tell Billy 'no' because that implies that he's wrong and hurts his self-esteem.” If you've ever seen the movie Parental Guidance it's a perfect representation of the modern parent versus the previous generation's methods of raising kids. Currently I think there should be a good balance of consequences and unconditional love when raising kids, you shouldn't smother them all the time and you shouldn't be the stern voice all the time. I still have some learning to do on kids and how their little minds work; my first step to this will probably be reading a book called Just One Minute about how just a moment can change a child's life dramatically.

I leave y'all with my thoughts, and no clear conclusion. :P