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I kinda think it's part of a parents job to decide what young children see and hear. Yeah, that is the thing I've been disagreeing about. I don't think "stuff
by curi 19y ago
I kinda think it's part of a parents job to decide what young children see and hear.
Yeah, that is the thing I've been disagreeing about.
I don't think "stuff the parent thinks is good/bad" is a reasonable criterion for what a child gets to see or not. It should be the child's decision, with advice from his parent.
The fundamental issue is that if you can't persuade someone of your ideas, that is a bad reason to force him. If your child wants to see a religious video despite your advice, then he should see it. If it's full of dumb ideas it won't be very persuasive anyway, right? Certainly not more persuasive than the wise parent..?
- rms 19y agoHow do you give a three or four year old decision making power with regards to the media they consume? Buy some DVDs and let them pick the ones with the best cover?
- curi 19y agoMost of my practical advice is nothing too special. You could get video previews for some shows, or get descriptions or read reviews and explain what it's about to child and see if he likes the sound of it. You can offer to get more of the same kind as something he likes. Parents already do these things at least sometimes. What parents don't generally do is have an attitude of trying to get whatever their child likes. They do that "within reasonable limits". Reasonable being a matter of their own judgment. They have preconceived ideas about what shows are bad, and try to avoid their child finding out about them instead of refuting the bad ideas. They fear "bad influences", instead of thinking that the worse an idea is, the less persuasive it is. One consequence of this attitude is that sometimes children want something, and their parents refuse, supposedly for the child's own good, and the child gets upset. Plenty of parents would, if their kid saw an episode of Veggie Tales (or whatever) and liked and repeated some ideas from it, say "omg the evil christians are polluting his mind" and forbid him from seeing the second episode that he's looking forward to. That's the wrong approach. Keeping people ignorant of ideas you think are bad is not the path to the truth.
- SwellJoe 19y ago"The fundamental issue is that if you can't persuade someone of your ideas, that is a bad reason to force him." Classic. I wish I could be there the day you try to persuade a 3 year old with your ideas. Have you met any young children, ever? You'll have a cantankerous and unhappy 80-pounder on your hands in no time, as they watch crap, consume crap, and learn crap from mainstream television and movies. I'm more laissez faire than most when it comes to kids, as I was raised in a very relaxed household and I think it works out very well in encouraging independent thought, but it's just stupid to imagine that a 3 year old can make wise decisions about their consumption. They simply don't have the knowledge to make reasonable choices, and you've never had the infinite "why?" conversation if you think they do.
- curi 19y agoSee, I told you we disagree. I'm going to drop it now since you aren't interested in my ideas.