Posted in Thoughts
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We watch DVDs at our house fairly often, but regular television is rarely on. When it is, it's usually the news or a grown-up show and it's after the kids go to bed. I know the awful state of television programming, but when you rarely see it, it's kind of a shock to your system! We were visiting someone the other day, and the kids were watching the Cartoon Network. I'm not sure what cartoon was on, but it was kind of creepy. They were talking about a "cloak of light" and "cloak of darkness" (or maybe shadows, I can't remember). It definitely didn't seem like a good show for little ones. I've had other similar situations recently that I don't remember as well, but just those brief glimpses of the cartoons just leave me with a really bad feeling. It's no longer good ol' cartoon violence that I grew up with like Bugs Bunny vs Yosemite Sam or Wile E Coyote trying to drop an anvil on Road Runner's head. Now many of them seem to be good/evil, light/dark blurring of the lines (plus just regular cartoon kids that have no manners whatsoever). And speaking of no manners… Last week, we were in a hospital waiting room for almost 2 1/2 hours. The kids did really good, but it was getting late and they were tired and a little bored, so we found another waiting room with a TV and watched that for the last half hour or so. It was on Nickelodeon and they were showing Kangaroo Jack. There some guns and bad guys in the show, which I didn't really want my preschoolers watching, but I dealt with that as best I could. However, it was nearly 10 on a Friday night, so I know the programming was for much older kids (not that that's much better!). So the movie was not the best kids show, but what I could not believe were some of the commercials that were on! They were awful… loud, obnoxious, flashy, and very often disrespectful. But there was one that stood out even more than the others. It was a commercial for bottled water for kids. The bottle was in a fun round shape that kids would supposedly like. So, the first part of the commercial was a cartoon boy (in color) and his dad (in black & white), and the dad was saying "When I was your age, blah blah blah…" (the blah blah is a direct quote). The boy obviously did not want to hear what his dad was saying, so he pulled a string and Poof! A fun, cool water bottle appears and dad disappears. Then the same cartoon boy (again in color) is in a messy room and his mom is telling him to clean his room (both the room and mom are in black & white). Of course, the mom is talking in a really obnoxious voice, so the boy pulls the magic string and mom and the messy room disappear and are replaced by the cool bottled water. I just could not believe this commercial. My description of it might not seem that bad, but when you get the full effect of it in person, it had the utmost, blatant disrespect for parents that I've ever seen on TV. If this is any example of what is on regular children's programming (and I'm afraid that it is), it's no wonder so many of our kids act the way they do! They are being taught downright disrespect for their parents right in their own home! Between that commercial and the others, plus the movie itself, it felt like every 30 seconds I was having to explain to my kids why such-and-such was not okay, or what the people on TV were doing wrong, or why they couldn't have this toy or that colored sugar (oopps, I mean "candy" and "cereal"), etc… It's really hard to guard their hearts when they're being bombarded by such junk! |
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