Monkey See Monkey Do...

Recently I have been debating on whether or not I wanted to blog about an experience that Adam and I had a few weeks ago. It was definitely one of those things that got my blood boiling enough to come home and write right away, but also something so intimate and fragile when it comes to parents and their children, that I did not want to blog about it without giving it a lot of thought and prayer. After seeing that one of my heroes - Jean Kilbourne - has a new book out, I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to go ahead and blog about the atrocities of the other night and .. hey, maybe plug her new book for all of you parents out there.


It was a Saturday night and we decided that since we had not had a date night in a little while, we would go out somewhere. After a lot of thought about where we wanted to go, we decided on a skating rink. We had not been skating in years and we both thought that it would be great exercise for us and fun at the same time. Boy were we wrong! Let's just say, I CAN NOT have fun when I'm watching children throwing their lives away. From the moment we got in there and sat down to put our skates on, I already had a knot in my stomach because of the lyrics that I heard in the music. They were not only completely degrading to women, but most of them were encouraging teens to have sex. Some other lyrics that I thought were incredibly disturbing where the ones that said - "I'm gonna (gun shots) take your money". I looked out on the skating rink and saw 7-9 yr old girls singing this song. But it didn't end there.

I found out a lot that night. I found out that kids don't go to the skating rink to skate anymore. Now in some rinks, they have a platform in the middle of the floor for the kids who want to take their skates off and dance. Now we aren't talking the chicken dance. I mean, these little girls are dancing the moves that they are seeing on these rap videos. Not only are the little boys in there watching them, but the older boys, and some of the dads (creepy I know) that are there with their kids. At this point I had almost lost my dinner, I was so sick to my stomach. I carefully looked at the outfits of some of the little girls in there. One little girl had her shirt unbuttoned to her belly button so that you could see her bra. Another pack of girls came in with booty shorts on and socks almost up to their thighs and their shirts tied up over their stomachs, as if to portray a french maid outfit or something. I was appalled. To watch them dance around - girl on girl on that stage for the crowd to see was one thing, but to know that they could not be more than 13 yrs old, any of them, was what really made me angry inside. This is what we are doing to our next generation. We are teaching them to be objects and boys that go looking for objects. We are teaching them to shoot people to "take their money".

I am not the kind of person that HAS or WILL EVER become desensitized to this kind of thing. If you know me fairly well you know that this is one of my passions in life, to see that this type of entertainment gets erased. To see that our next generations are taught virtues and morals and what it means to really be valuable. But this night just broke my heart. After we had been there for only a short while, we just had to go. Part of me was so done with everything that I had witnessed in there, I just wanted to run outside and never look back at that filth. But the other part of me was crying inside for every child in there whose parents thought they were just "going skating". And for every child in there whose parents knew they weren't going skating and didn't care. Most of all, my heart broke for my future daughters. Adam and I are not trying to have a family yet, but it isn't something that we haven't talked about. And every time we talk about having children I get this feeling in my heart that brings such joy. At the same time, I get another feeling in my stomach that brings fear of what they will have to endure in this vulgar and evil world. It reminds me of lyrics from a song I love by Plumb- called "In My Arms".. it says

"Story books are full of fairytales
Of kings and queens and the bluest skies
My heart is torn, just in knowing
You'll someday see the truth from lies...."

Please, whatever you do, those of you who are parents out there... be more involved in the influences that your child is around. Be more cautious about what they are listening to and watching, and where they are going. Make sure it is age appropriate. Don't make your child grow up faster than they should just because it is the new trend. I see so many little girls now days, and by little I mean 5 and 6, wearing Hanna Montana shirts and talking about HIGH SCHOOL musical.

So if you are saying to yourself, yeah, these things are getting bad, but I'm not sure how to protect my kids from it all .. Have no Fear! There are lots of materials out there to help you. Try going here - and pick up this book or seeing what this awesome lady has to say at her website. Also, this, this, and this, article might be helpful in a lot of ways. So remember the next time that you go to drop your kids off at the skating rink, the mall, or at some movie that you know nothing about, all of the avenues that our society is taking to corrupt the minds of our children. Teach them about morals and purity. About what is classy and what is trashy. Teach your sons to respect women and to desire one that is virtuous and not scandalous. Teach your daughters that there is more to being valuable than how "hot" everyone thinks she is. Please, if not for your children, ....then for mine.