Whatever happened to parental example? You know, the model of behavior set by the older and wiser generation to assist in molding the younger one. Not only was it a parent’s responsibility to do their best in setting a good example, but other adults in communities also tried to follow suit. The attitude was that those youngsters who are watching you may not be your kids, but they are someone else’s. As a parent, no, as an adult, you tried to adhere to a code of behavior in front of the young and impressionable so they didn’t learn the wrong lessons about life.
There where little eyes watching you, and you had to step it up.
Even now amongst some of my more ‘worldly’ friends and workmates, they still won’t swear in front of young children or certain women. It just isn’t right, especially with young kids. As for parent’s Mommy and Daddy are very powerful influences in their young lives, do I need to even post stats on that fact? So tell me, what does it say to young girls when their mothers enroll them in pole dancing classes? What does it say to young children who watch MTV and see booty shaking female dancers being bent over by rappers who then mimic sex?
Does a young child at that age even know it’s wrong? They know that people LUUV Hip Hop artists, so can they really be doing something bad? I saw this clip and nearly lost my lunch (h/t Ryu c/o Inmalafide) what the hell is this supposed to be? From the description of the video;
Remember, the young and impressionable don't fathom the full consequences of our choices and actions and they see "Mommy, Daddy," or their heroes acting in such a way and they therefore believe that this must be right.
Have we forgotten that our young people are always looking up to us for the example and trying to follow in our footsteps even when we aren’t paying attention? They look up to us in ways that we can’t even imagine. Don’t we ourselves remember when we where young and impressionable and how we felt about our parents and elders at the time. This very picture that I had placed on the top of this post I had done with my own father when I was five. He was shaving and so was I, albeit using soap and a plastic shaver from a Play Doh barber set. How many other men and women wanted to emulate their parents at that stage in their lives?
Listen, there is no question that parents need to do the best they can with what they have. In reality, one can’t say that they did such and such so their child WILL end up all right; one can only increase the odds in their favor and hedge their bets. However, engaging in acts such as this simply because everyone else is letting their children dress and act like the rich and famous can have some very serious drawbacks in the future.
My own father used to lose it when I walked around with my hat turned around backwards, he said I looked like ‘one of those blacks’ when I did it. I never knew what he meant until my stepson-entered junior high while telling him to pull up his pants. My Dad saw something, which I didn’t, and I’m glad he railed on me so much for it. It was the principle of people's impressions of how I dressed behind what I assumed to be a simple fashion statement. I didn’t see it at the time that he was protecting me from my own ignorance and now I really appreciate that he never gave up. We try and protect our young people from obvious dangers in even our own households as they don’t understand them at the time, how is protecting the young from this bad behavior any different?
Apparently so many adults have forgotten this principle in regards to their own families yet wonder why children are ‘sexting’ and engaging in other forms of intercourse at younger and younger ages.
Omnipitron
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