As a young child, I remember playing outside on my bike, running through the woods, swimming in the lake, jumping on the trampoline and occasionally playing Nintendo. My parents enforced taking part in a physical activity, doing my homework right after school and no cell phone until I could pay for it myself. These are things that taught me confidence, independence, responsibility and commitment while allowing me to still enjoy my youth. Parenting seems to be going down the tubes, allowing society to shape it based on what is being spoon-fed to the population through media.
From "Toddlers & Tiaras" to "Teen Mom," society is teaching our young daughters superficial ways to gain attention. Young children should not be plastered in makeup, and teenage girls should not be bearing children, end of story. Do these shows glorify growing up too fast? Do they plant the idea of having babies in the heads of teen girls by glorifying their cast's situations?
MTV makes the lives of their "teen moms" look rather exciting with their own houses and flashy cars. The show barely touches on pregnancy prevention and day-to-day struggles for parents, but instead on having multiple children and failed marriages. Does being a teen mother in today's society carry poor morals on to their children?
With lack of knowledge for acceptable standards because of age, it can easily be said that our young daughters are becoming products of "playing house." Not to say this is the case for every young mother, because that is far from my point. However, there are a lot of cases where a vicious cycle of uneducated decisions repeat themselves.
Teaching young girls to value themselves and cover up is becoming a double edged sword. We can't tell them to be modest these days because then we are teaching them to be ashamed of their bodies or building a lack of self-esteem. But then not telling them to cover up makes us terrible parents teaching promiscuity and distorted ideas of beauty.
Think about this: a young girl gets raped because she was dressed and acting promiscuous and now what do we say? She was asking for it? She should not have provoked them by dressing that way? None of this makes sense. Our reactions are contradictory to our actions, thus creating confusion and uncertainty in the minds of young females. There is so much pressure placed upon girls to look and act a certain way, and then when they do they are berated for it.
How about the parents who want to do right by their children and buy them age appropriate clothes? Stores make it nearly impossible to find summer clothes for girls ages 7-16. Shorts barely cover butt cheeks, shirts barely cover the chest, and one-piece bathing suits are becoming a thing of the past.
There are many ill-minded people in the world, and I will be damned if a pervert is going to eye my daughters because they are wearing skin-baring clothes. There needs to be options for everyone, even those parents who think it is perfectly OK to let their kids outside half naked. I just hope those parents are ready to hold themselves accountable when their child only sees themselves for what they are on the outside, rather than on the inside as well.
Is the media to blame for putting these ideas out in the world, or are the parents to blame for allowing their daughters to soak all of these ideas in? Blame can easily be placed on one or the other, but parents need to take a stand and take control. We need to protect and nurture our young, encouraging and educating them on how to grow to be successful and self-respecting individuals.
There needs to be a greater emphasis on school and college, setting goals and the satisfaction of achieving them, and the idea of self-worth. We need to teach our children the idea of being successful is the only way, not by using their bodies to gain the attention of the wrongful hand that can "feed" them. Get your kids off the electronics and involved in age appropriate activities with other kids their age.
Make the time to spend with your children to be sure you are raising them and not the media. Knowing that we gave our children the right tools and trusting them to make the best decisions for themselves as they get older is where we begin to see change.
