~MONDAY MORNING MOCHA~

Are TV and Video Games Raising Our Children??

Long gone are the days when children would be outside, playing in the streets, when you drove through a neighborhood. When I was growing up in the nineties we played outside. Our parents did not let us come in the house, except for a water break. Especially during the summer, we would stay outside all day and wouldn’t return until dark. We played all kinds of games, everything from hide-and-go-seek to games that we made up. It was only on rainy days that we would congregate at one house and watch TV and movies or play video games. But even on those rainy days, we’d play board games or make up games to play in the house. We were creative, we had vivid imaginations and we LOVED to explore!

Now-a-days, it seems as though children just wait to be entertained. They have access to so many stimuli that they have no need to entertain themselves. TV and video games have become the tool that most parents use to entertain (or distract) their children while they are busy doing something or when they just don’t want to be bothered. It’s nothing wrong with a little bit of TV, but it seems as though the only thing children know is TV, video games and what’s on the radio. Children are being robbed of their precious imaginations. And having a limited imagination does not nurture your creative and logical thinking skills as it should. Therefore, they are being robbed of their MINDS and their ability to THINK. And I wonder why this is?? Because the powers that be, don’t want a functioning society that can THINK and are aware of what’s going on in the world. They want a society that stays in their little bubbles of TV, Internet, iPods, video games, cell phones (yes, cell phones!), etc. so they can continue to “pull the wool over their eyes”. I worked at a school for a few years and I was quite disheartened to find out that most children did not know how to spell their name, recite the alphabet, or count to ten when they started school. They did however know the latest songs on the radio and the newest shows on TV. When I would take my group outside for recess, they really didn’t know what to do. They would just stand around and talk. I had to TEACH them how to play!! I couldn’t believe it.

Something is wrong with the parenting in this country. I am not a parent but I do want children some day. And every day I observe parents around me and pick up on things that I will or won’t do with my children. I know parenting is hard work, and that’s why I am not having children until I know that I am ready to truly give up my selfish ways. I think the problem lies in the fact that parents feel like their job stops when they get home because they work so hard during the day. They want to sit back and relax and watch TV themselves. But even though you work so hard all day, you real job starts when you get home. And that job is the most important of them all: raising your children.

Talk to your children, play board games with your children, do puzzles with your children, READ to your children!!!!….I am really scared for the generation of children that are being raised today. These are the children that will be taking care of my generation in the future. And personally, I don’t think they are being prepared at all. Why do you think so many children are A.D.D.? Because they are over-stimulated and over entertained and then you ask them to sit in a classroom for eight hours and pay attention?? First of all, the education system is truly screwed up and needs to be completely revamped (but that’s for another post!), but secondly parents need to start talking to their children; reading to their children; interacting with their children in ways that don’t involve TV. My parents used to read to me and talked to me about things. We would have discussions! I could watch TV, but what I watched was very limited. When I got home from school in the evenings we played outside! Children hardly do that anymore. Playing outside involved some of the best memories I have from childhood.

Now I‘m no expert on parenting or anything like that, but I am worried for our children and it’s not their fault. It’s ours. And I say “ours” because it truly does take a village to raise a child. These are just my observations, things that I think need to be addressed in our communities, especially the black community. We just need to invest a little more time in our children because, I know its cliché, but they are the future. We need to be teaching them how to THINK and make good decisions. We all know that saying: “you can be anything you want to be if you put your mind to it.” Well they CAN’T be anything in this world if they don’t have the MINDS to do so. And those minds have to be developed!! And who has to develop them?? WE DO!

So this concludes your wake-up call in this edition of Monday Morning Mocha! I look forward to a great discussion for “What Do You Think Wednesdays?” and as always, do CREATE a good day…hope you have a great Monday….PEACE!