Posted on 12/17/2006 10:11:47 PM PST by goldstategop
Times have changed, and so have Christmas breaks
Remember Christmas vacations as a child? Those couple-week breaks when you were unleashed from school? I can still remember them like they were yesterday.
Living as a child in meager conditions with Granny Scarberry in Wilson, Okla., my younger brother Wieland and I had so much fun during those blissful December retreats. Playing hide-and-go-seek, catching lizards, pretending to be war heroes was about as dangerous as it got.
Times were simple back then, and Mom and Granny were always around.
But those days are long gone.
Latchkey leisure
Today, with women making up 46 percent of the total U. S. labor force, 77 percent of youth (5-7 million between 5-13 years old) are designated as "latchkey kids," those who fend for themselves for at least part of the day while their parents are off working.
Absent fathers are another contributor, as 40 percent of babies are born to unmarried women, compared to only 3.8 percent in 1940.
So, what are our children doing with their time off, when mom and dad are away?
It's Christmas break. Do you know where your children are?
Hello DVD, my old friend
Half of all the children in our nation ages 12 to 14 are home alone for seven hours a week. Doing what? Some are engaged in illegal and immoral activity. According to the New York University Child Study Center:
In the last 11 years, juvenile crime has increased 48 percent. The Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development found that eighth graders who are alone 11 hours a week are twice as likely to abuse drugs as adolescents who are busy after school. The Council also found that teens who have sexual intercourse do it in the afternoon in the home of boys whose parents work.
Most kids, however, are doing what seems like "normal American behavior": listening to iPods, watching TV, surfing the Net, and playing a host of electronic games.
Vicky Rideout, who led a study from the Kaiser Family Foundation, found:
More than a third of kids under 6 have a TV in their bedroom.
About one in four have a VCR or DVD where they sleep.
A computer is present in 7 percent of preschoolers' bedrooms. Rideout told CNN: "We found out that kids today are growing up absolutely immersed in electronic media in this country, starting at the youngest ages. [At] even just a few months old, they're watching TV, watching videos, using computers, playing video games. …"
But is it all innocent and harmless fun?
As popularity of new gaming devices soars, and parents cave to purchase them because of the peer pressure of consumer demand, very few will stop to consider what irreprehensible garbage lies in wait on the most seemingly docile-titled games.
What we buy (for Christmas) won't hurt them?
Explicit sexual material and fantasy is growing at an alarming rate on electronic media.
If somehow you've missed how the smut has crept into and desensitized the gaming culture in our society, you can read about it on Internet encyclopedias. This from Wikipedia:
Many graphic adventure games depicted or make reference to subject matter that would otherwise been censored or taboo. … Adventure games set in a gritty environment … contain bits of profanity and include either depictions or allusions to mature sexual themes such as prostitution, homosexuality and illicit drugs.
What many of our children and grandchildren are playing is flat out an embarrassment to an intellectually civilized country like our own. Or are we, when we provide the electronic instruments through which our children participate in such foolish and debilitating rituals?
Who lurks within
Children are specifically at risk on household computers. By just the input of a simple Google search, any child can accidentally call up a pornographic picture, pop-up, ad or site.
Simple online Christmas shopping at such teenage-popular places like Spencer Gifts can launch images of sexual ornaments or "pornaments" before innocent eyes.
Even worse today are the threats of online predators and pedophiles by e-mail, in chat rooms, on blogs, instant messenger or MySpace (your child's "cyber secret").
If you haven't heard or don't understand the terms I just used, and your children of any age are on computers, your household is likely unprotected from being sexually assaulted or victimized.
Garbage in, garbage out!
The American Academy of Pediatrics rightly encourages us to limit the "media diet of messages" our children are consuming. They also give at least seven great "media education ideas" and even more to "set the home stage."
Before you purchase a media gift for a stocking-stuffer, read an online parental review about the music.
In short, you're the parent. It's time to take control of your children's media diet, especially during school breaks. The garbage has come in. Time to take it out – and keep it out!
Are you sexually protected?
I'm not telling anyone to pull the plug on their computers or game stations. But we must model and teach our children how to safely surf the online world.
Even more, we must protect our children from being online prey! That is why I endorse and encourage some form of Internet sexual protection, such as Max Internet Predator Guard, Max Protect for Kids or Max Play filter for movies.
The additional benefit of getting it for the kids is it also protects the adults in the household. As most are all too aware, Internet pornography is one of the greatest threats to relational intimacy.
Could there be a better Christmas gift?
Home is where Granny is … or people like her
Though Granny Scarberry has long-ago left her Oklahoma home for her heavenly one, her legacy doesn't have to disappear.
Morality and decency can still be a part of America, as long as you and I are here and we commit ourselves to passing it along to our children and grandchildren. (If you don't believe you can make a difference to your little ones, reread my column "The force of 1" for a little Christmas inspiration.)
While proceeding forward in technology, we need be retroactive about decency and civility, reminding young people of a much simpler time in which people offered respect to all, took the time to talk to neighbors, raised their kids themselves, and even rested and went to church on Sundays. Now there's a novel thought! And just in time for Christmas. You can even find a little assistance online in locating one.
Friends, let's get to it! Our children are at stake, even during Christmas break.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
:)
my younger brother Wieland and I had so much fun during those blissful December retreats. Playing hide-and-go-seek, catching lizards....
then I would kick my brother in the face.
Chuck Noriris IS a danger to kids.
Chuck Norris knows the last number of PI
These facts are funny and all but Chuck Norris did write an excellent article.
Keep up the good work and please don't roundhouse kick me!
I'll guess it's a number between 0 and 9.
I've got an idea, goldstate - how about starting a Chuck Norris ping list? If you start one, add my name!
I've had the flu so I haven't done much proper pinging, but I'm going to start pinging the moral absolutes list to Norris' articles.
Chuck Norris Ping List - join here... goldstategop
Everyone, join this ping list or Chuck Norris will roundhouse kick you in the face.
As popularity of new gaming devices soars, and parents cave to purchase them because of the peer pressure of consumer demand, very few will stop to consider what irreprehensible garbage lies in wait on the most seemingly docile-titled games.
irreprehensible
Chuck Norris is so tough, words can mean whatever he says they mean. Though he really should look into buying a dictionary and looking up the meanings of some of the words he uses.
Chuck Norris has counted to infinity. Twice.
Put me on the Chuck Norris ping list!
Chuck Norris could picnic in Fort Marcy park
You did add me, yes?
Thanks!
plz add me to the CN ping list
When the bogeyman goes to bed at night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
Heck yeah....
Chuck Norris caused the Big Bang too :)
Please add me to the list, lest Chuck does me like he did Joe Piscopo in "Sidekicks".
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