TV The Educator!

Alright, so this is pissing me off...

For years and years now, we have allowed the TV to raise our children. Tell me it's not true when you "just need a minute" and you end up letting your three year old watch Dora The Explorer for a few hours while he/she tinkers with a mess of toys or just gazes perplexed by the colors and songs on the tube... Tell me that is NOT a good indicator for the child where he/she should get the vast majority of the education from. What about the average american? How many hours do you watch TV per day? That's great and all, but what about the kids watching you watch TV all the time? Don't be surprised when they want to watch it too.

So now that Dora can teach out kids spanish while we're picking up medical lingo watching House, or maybe we're getting our history on the History Channel, why do we feel so inclined to blame the TV for teaching our kids the wrong things?

Seriously... After years of subjecting your child to an understanding that the TV is a wealth of entertainment and even knowledge, why are you going to all of a sudden complain when it "gets out of hand." Isn't the TV supposed to be something that entertains you? NOT teaches you...? Granted, you CAN learn from it, but this IS NOT the singular source of all knowledge, especially knowledge you would give to you child.

Let's break it down to WHY I'm pissed off... I read an article about teen sex on TV and how hollywood is brainwashing our kids to have premarital sex or even PEER PRESSURING them... Yes. The article referred to the TV as the greatest form of peer pressure.

Here's what I have to say... STOP COMPLAINING! If you don't want the TV to teach your kids, you'd better get back to parenting. You've had a long vacation America. Now it's time to get real. DO YOUR JOB. You should know what's out there in the world. Don't be surprised when your lazy parenting bites you in the ass and the TV gets to the sex talk before YOU do.

And let's not kid ourselves either... You could beat the shit out of your kid with the King James Bible every day of their life, but it won't keep them from having sex before your want them to. You could do a myriad of different things to keep it from happening, but it's GOING TO HAPPEN. Not every kid has sex before marriage, but let's face it... DID YOU?!?! The statistics are that if you're married and reading this, you did have premarital sex. So don't beat yourself up for being a hypocrite. Being a parent will do that to you.

Technology is a great thing... You can block certain TV shows. Did you know that??? Don't just label the TV as the the biggest peer in your kids life. If you allow that to happen, that's your fault.

Ok... I think I'm done ranting.... for now.