exposure

I am tired of Radio Disney. I'm sick of Justin Beber and all the other little kids who sing songs about love, school, and teenage angst, but at this point I don't think I have another choice. It seems as if every other radio station is determined to play songs about sex, drugs and violence. When I was 18, I thought it was awesome. Honestly, when I'm in the car by myself, I still tune in and bob my head to the southern beats. I have a connection with hip-hop that I cannot deny...but I don't want my kids being bombarded by all that nonsense every day. I know that they will hear it all in due time, but I have trouble riding with my 5 year-old daughter listening to somebody talking about bending a girl over. I'm just sayin'.

I had a conversation in passing with a colleague and he told me that he doesn't have cable tv in his home. I said, "then what do your kids watch? How do they get to see Hannah Montana and Sunny With a Chance?" He said, "they can watch that stuff on Saturday morning on network tv."

I immediately thought, "this guy's kids are going to be space cadets." I don't want to shelter my kids to the point where they are disconnected from their peers and the world in general. But I also want to make an effort to filter out some of the nonsense that our media constantly pushes on us. It's so much different than when we were growing up. If 2 Live Crew were to release an album with similar content to their old stuff, most of the songs would be "clean" enough to play on the radio. When I was a kid, it wasn't that way.

So I give them exposure when I can. I invite people over for drinks, and when they cuss, I don't get mad. I don't cuss around my kids, but I want my kids to know that people cuss. I want them to know that people smoke and drink and that they're not bad people for doing it. They need to know that good people make bad choices...but they're still good. It's funny when I have a beer at dinner and Kenzer says, "daddy, beer is a drug." I tell her, "your teachers are right, beer is a drug, but I'm over 21. I can have a drink when I please. You on the other hand cannot, because it's against the law." Well...sometimes I say, "your teachers don't know what they're talking about."

It's difficult to acheive a balance, but we have agreed that it's not healthy to allow them access to everything that's out there. We don't want our kids singing "I can make your bed rock." But at the same time, we think it's just as unhealthy to have them out here thinking that the world is all smiles and roses. We allow them to watch cable tv, but at this point BET and MTV are so far out of control that we don't let them tune in. They have ipods (spoiled) but we have to make sure they're not just downloading any and everything. I know that some things will slip by us, but I'm ok with that. Maybe some things need to slip through the cracks. It's called reality and we can't hide from it. But it's a full-time job trying to filter it.