We live in a world and at a time when it seems that children have adult sized choices and decisions thrust upon them, robbing them of their childhood and forcing them to deal with things they are not emotionally or experientially equipped to deal with. It ought to be to our sadness and regret that our children live in an "R" rated world and have had to suffer through words which describe and images that depict some of our worst and most depraved desires. Yet this is the world we have given them and this is the obstacle course they must make their way through to a whole and responsible adulthood. Yes, we do have the power to give them a safer world and environment in which to grow up into adulthood but at some point and for some reason we as a culture decided the hardest edges of life and the most realistic depictions of our chosen reality were the things our children should know from childhood on.
Our world is not safe. It is not safe for them to use the tools of the internet or even the toys we give them for play. We get all excited when some lead paint shows up in a toy from China or a car seat needs to be recalled but we cannot seem to muster the same sort of indignation over the explicit sex acts and violence which is routinely fed to them in those unsupervised screens. We think we are paying attention to the best interests of our children when we violate their bodies because of a momentary whim for a boy to be a girl or a girl a boy but we cannot find it within ourselves to allow them any freedom to be children. Maybe the birth rate ought to be going down if this is all we can manage as a culture and society to protect our children and insulate them from the worst around them.
Hillary Clinton was vilified for saying it takes a village to raise a child. She may have been wrong about everything else but she was not wrong about that. It does take a village and we have been doing a rather poor job as a village taking care of our children. When they act out or display adult size temperaments for sex or violence, we are shocked and appalled. Where did they learn this? I can tell you. Look in the mirror. They learned it from self-indulgent adults who have lost their common sense and forsaken the sense of duty and responsibility our children deserve in order to hand them a weapon which they do not know how to use. How could they not hurt themselves or others!
There was a time when my kids were small and I turned the channel or took the page out of their hand because it was not appropriate to their age or maturity. We need to take more care as adults to protect those most vulnerable more than indulge them with adult sized freedom and choices that will hurt them for the whole of their lives. Before we expect our children to grown up and act their age, we adults need to do exactly that.
No comments:
Post a Comment