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 As we look at the new millennium we see a time of great change. The information highway is already expanding farther than we had ever imagined possible. Televisions and computers are providing substitute relationships for many people. Rather than sitting down to write a letter or even picking up the phone, we just e-mail; or worse, we do not communicate at all. Instead, we just flip on the television or log on to the Internet.
We have begun to communicate through the computer as if it were a real person. In return, our natural form of communication has suffered. If it is not the parent who is obsessed with the computer, it is the child. Our children have begun to spend more and more time alternating between the computer and the television. We do not pull our children away from this in-home, twenty-four-hour-a-day babysitter because we are very busy and do not want to be disturbed. We allow our children to come home from school, snack in front of the television, and then play on the computer for the rest of the afternoon because they are being so quiet and not demanding any of our attention, In exchange for peace and quiet after our busy day, we sacrifice the quality time we should be spending with our children, which is so important to their healthy development.
Our children will not be in our care forever. They are seeds that are planted in the gardens of our lives only for a brief season. The season to tend to our seeds is upon us. If a farmer does not tend to his field, what will it look like when harvest time arrives? Our children are a reflection of how we attend to their needs. Technology is only one aspect of our society that is taking us away from one another, and away from our children, our most vital resource.
Parents are unaware of the many aspects of our technological world that have become threats to our security and safety. The inquiring nature of a child allows him to come into contact with materials that are not only inappropriate to his age, but which can also be detrimental to his emotional functioning. One example of this occurred with the two boys from Littleton, Colorado, involved in the Columbine shooting incident. The boys became obsessed with the Internet and were further encouraged to destructive behavior by horrible cult groups.
Without parental supervision of the Internet, our children are but innocent babes awaiting slaughter. As information becomes more accessible and the boundaries and structure become less, our children gain knowledge they are not emotionally equipped to handle. Such material consists of fanatical cult groups, child and adult pornography, violence, and more. These are elements of our society with which our children should never have to come into contact. As adults we want our children to develop a high enough sense of self worth and value that they will make a conscious decision to avoid such harmful activities as taking drugs, stealing, and killing. However, if we are not around to teach self worth and values or to monitor our children in their exploration, then we cannot expect growing and curious young minds to avoid such areas.
It is important to understand that the Internet and television are not all negative. There are very educational aspects of both; however, without parental guidance, these seemingly innocent outlets can, in fact, be very dangerous. Therefore, as parents in the new millennium, we must always be mindful of the banks upon which we are placing our children.
For All Things A Season was written to provide parents with an understanding of some of the essential aspects of parenting that are readily becoming displaced during the age of information and technology. It is a book that is easy to understand and to incorporate, or possibly to merely reinforce that which is already known.
"As parents in the new millennium, we must always be mindful of the banks upon which we are placing our children."
Read the entire book For All Things A Season. |
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