Moms have the most important job in the world. They hold the keys to a child’s childhood and greatly influence the lives of their adult children.
Our kids are growing up too fast. Our kids aren’t being allowed a childhood, thanks to the lack of parental involvement where the Internet is concerned and lack of honest information about what is being taught in school. Today, it’s TMI (too soon) and “over sexed ed” in elementary school. We are doing our children a great disservice by not allowing them to enjoy being innocent.
Whatever happened to tree forts and baby dolls? I miss seeing kids on Big Wheels and riding their bikes. Instead, I see them on their smart phones in line for movies designed to take just a little more of their childhood from them while pushing an agenda that’s anything but child-like.
I miss the days when kids could be little kids. I miss the pre-agenda education that I grew up with.
If you’re a mom, you have the most important job in the world. You get to allow your kids to experience the wonder of being a kid while you shape their hearts and minds in preparation for adulthood.
Sure, we can’t keep them from every damaging thing out there. But we can sure try to maintain their innocence so that they can enjoy the one time of life when the world seems like a nicer place than it really is.
I vote for tree forts and secret codes and disappearing ink. I vote for play kitchens and wooden blocks and bicycles. I vote for roller skating and old Disney movies. I vote for childhood.
Let them be little.
Beautiful! Well said! Thank you for the little reminder and encouragement.
Refreshing perspective on parenting. The same can be said about dads and how important they are in a child’s upbringing.
Very well said… My mother had the right idea, she always
taught us..”Everything in it’s time”. She always expressed the importance of doing things in its time, if we did everything at a young age (makeup, dating, working as teens).. what would be left for us to do as adults?
Enjoy the time we have now..for tomorrow will be here soon enough.
This is so right on. There is so much in our society that would steal our kid’s innocence. I’m not “anti-electronic device” but as parents we certainly have to set boundaries. My wife and I pulled the cable plug twenty years ago and don’t miss it a bit. This allows us more quality family time and I feel like our kids are avoiding the brainwashing that happens with what is labeled as entertainment these days. I’m for jumping on the trampoline or riding bikes or geocaching with the kids or going on hikes and pretending we’re spies and someone is after us. And when we do watch streaming movies or TV shows we’re for Leave It To Beaver and Dick VanDyke or I Love Lucy. Our 8 and 12 year olds love the old shows and even our 23 year old would still choose some of these old shows over some other choices. Some would say our kids are in a bubble but we like our bubble. We can’t shield our kids from everything but like you said, it gives us the opportunity to shape their hearts and minds.
We recently pulled the plug on cable, too. Surprised at how much we *don’t* miss it.
Allowing children to think for themselves and create their own games, made them more creative and helped them solve problems.alot of working out problems is taken away by instant technology
I enjoyed reading this. I am always saying the same thing. Why do we feel, as a society that our children need to be adults at such an early age? We homeschool our children and keep them with us all the time. I am very picky about what they read, watch and listen to. Everything that goes in their ears and brains come out eventually. When they are young we need them to have the innocent play, the not thinking of damaging thoughts or movies but playing without care with friends and family. My children love going outdoors. On warmer days, they take off after breakfast, come in for lunch, out again till supper. Of course I check on them, sometimes I join them. But they are always on the go, exploring, learning. They only use internet for school purposes and we don’t have cable, we have DVDs that I decide when and what they watch. My boys build forts, protect the people from attacks, look for bugs ( and spiders to scare mom), and ride their bikes until they almost fall apart. My little girl plays in her playhouse, cooks play food for her daddy and brothers, helps mommy hang out clothes, and gets muddy and rides bikes and looks for bugs with her brothers. They are so happy and they are being kids. I agree with you so much. And I say pull the plugs, store those game systems in the closet for a rainy or snowy day, cancel the cable (save money too) and start letting kids be the kids they need to be.
The push to grow up is insane today on kids. I took a youth ministry class in college that said for several generations mothers have forced their children (especially daughters) to grow up to fast and society has paid for it. My kid’s doctor (and my doctor later on) said kids don’t even need to know about the birds and bees as early as so many parents introduce the subject. She insisted we enjoy the stage of beautiful girlhood and not rush things. I’ve heard from other mothers that their kids were not ready for “the talk” and found it far too disturbing at a young age. Let them grow up at their own pace and provide tools as needed, not too early in order to hinder natural development. Let little girls dress and act like little girls, not mini adults.