TV as a BABYSITTER

Christian parents have such an important responsibility in today’s world to raise their kids right. Bottom line is: if you’re not passing on your Christianity to your children, your faith will die with you. That is the flagrant problem in most churches, seeing so few young people in attendance and involvement.

Because TV is such an easy babysitter, parents have resorted to leaving children in front of the TV for hours. Some parents are selective in regards to the TV programming their children are consuming. But very few. And most TV programs have a very derogatory attitude towards Christian principles and values.

Did you know that between the ages of 8 and 18 children spend approximately 44.5 hours every week engaging with some form of media. That’s the equivalent of a full-time job!

The media has become a type of “super-peer,” influencing children’s behaviors and shaping their values and therefore have become more influential in the children’s upbringing than parents and teachers.

The easy access to pornography just a click or two away is one of the biggest challenges. There are over 300,000 pornographic websites especially targeting the youth.

1 in 5 teens who claim that Christian beliefs are “extremely important” for them, confess that most of the films they watch are R-rated. Adolescents who regularly consume sexualized music, television, and movies are twice as likely to have sex at an early age. Even most TV and media programs that are PG-13—and occasionally PG—are steeped in extreme sexual content (as are popular songs and video games).

Christian parents trying to protect their children have their work cut out for them. To put it bluntly, the devil is after your kids. And his #1 enticing means is TV and social media. So, what are Christian moms and dads to do?

It starts early! If you plan to have children, you must plan to raise them right and fight for their spiritual health just as hard as you do for their physical health.

It starts earlier than that… What is your standard in regards to what you consume media wise? How much of those TV series that contradict your stance of faith do you allow in your own diet? And ask yourself: Would you give your child alcohol or drugs once they turn 8 years old and allow them to be sexually active? You may be doing so by giving them their own phone.

Our Christian stance cannot be “personal”. Not if you’re parents who want to keep the children in the faith. In this media-saturated culture, Christian parents must become more intentional about raising their children and have strong convictions regarding their entertainment choices.

If you are lethargic and figure you’ll tune into it if and when the problem comes up, you’ll find it extremely difficult later to deter a teenager from following his/her peers if they’ve been used to going with the flow and following the crowd. Peer pressure is no small deal for teens.

It’s extremely important to control and limit the use of these electronic devices by the younger generation. It may be a source of constant arguments at first, when you decide to limit the consumption of detrimental programming that kids absorb, but it comes down to a VERY important choice.

Many of their peers are online for hours every day… Giving your daughter permission to spend hours on Facebook or TikTok or listening to countless hours of music or compete against video gamers around the globe, may expose her to all kinds of harmful influences—right under your nose.

It’s important to help your children become media savvy so they don’t fall prey to the devil’s traps. There are websites that help parents who want to be vigilant in garding their children from the overwhelming media control of children, and I suggest you research what you must do to dramatically change your whole family’s consumption of harmful programming. You may start with James Dobson’s “Focus On The Family” website.