| I saw a comment accompanying a YouTube video
this evening that really sparked my Inner Comment Ninja. On said
YouTube video, someone complained about the music with it being “NSFW
or children.” What first popped into my head was “It’s not the
job of everyone on the internet to make sure your kid isn’t near a
computer.” But what hit me next was a true jem. It occurred to me that during my childhood, the biggest threat to both my physical health and safety and my emotional well-being was my home life and parents! My mother was what I call “hysterically Catholic” and wouldn’t let us even go to the movies without checking to see the Catholic church’s rating on a film. Here’s how bad it got: my mother would not let us see the movie Grease, yet she let my Dad beat us. How absurd does it have to get before a parent wakes up and recognizes their own hypocrisy and dishonesty? The single biggest threat to my safety was my parents. In the years that I was a teacher, I saw how unfortunately common this scenario is for America’s children. Until parents are willing to look at their OWN behavior, no amount of trying to change or police anyone else will make a single child in this country safer. Mother’s of America: if you’re that worried about your kid hearing the word “shit” in the movie Grease, how about getting clear about the effects of violence directly applied to the kid FIRST! |