Having a hard time with trying to keep my kids-kids

[lookatreestar]

i remember singing "shes my cherry pie" as a kid, i had NO CLUE lol!!

i honestly just cannot even handle watching "regular tv" the ads and commercials are so annoying. the less electronics the better imo.

[momtojande]

Yeah, I want them to stay kids too. Although, I'm the one that got them started on Angry Birds. And Gangnam style -- I am totally justifying that as cultural enrichment.

Violent games -- yeah, they can want them if they want but I'm not allowing them. I'm also not going to let them have a TV in their room (DH would love to, but I'm firm). We all draw the lines in different places I guess.

Originally Posted by danner The number one song on the radio (I assume it was anyway) was Hot Stuff by Donna Summer. I walked around singing it much to my mom's dismay.

Originally Posted by lookatreestar i remember singing "shes my cherry pie" as a kid, i had NO CLUE lol!!

I remember when I was 4, singing "Torn Between Two Lovers." Drove my mom crazy. I had no idea what I was singing about.

[nicolemariep]

We are a fairly conservative family, and I really want my kids to get to be kids.

We have a TV, but the kids almost never watch it. I would say they average 1/2 hour of screen time per month. The ONLY thing that we allow them to watch without us prescreening it is VeggieTales. If we want to watch a movie with them, DH and I will watch it first by ourselves. DH wants to watch Brave this weekend to see if we can use it for movie night They never see commercials because we only watch DVDs.

We listen to Christian music, pretty much exclusively. My kids (the 4 year-old especially) love the heavier/more alternative Christian music, which is fine with me. My 4 year-old knows the pretty much all the words to most of the songs we hear regularly on the radio and in church (DH plays guitar for the worship team). I love hearing him sing. He doesn't know any inappropriate songs because he doesn't have a chance to hear them.

The kids don't play video games yet because I don't see a point. Maybe in a few years. But those will be screened as well.

We homeschool. For various reasons, but wanting my kids to stay innocent for as long as possible is on the list.

I personally believe that we live in a horrifying world, and I want my kids to enjoy being kids for as long as possible.

[firemommaof1]

Originally Posted by keen1981 My kids do not play video games that are not for CHILDREN. They would have to pick my dang jaw off the floor if they asked for a video game like that. Holy sheep. We also do not glorify the work my husband does. There will never be any combat games in my home. Ever. So it can be done. I feel strongly about this. If you want your a children to not be allowed to sing the song or the game- simply explain why. My kids get it.

This is honorable. I feel the same way. We shelter our kids very much and I don't think there is anything wrong with it. They ARE KIDS!!! not adults.

[corinne76]

Lol about the sexy lady thing. I was trying sooo hard to not let my daughter hear that song. But she picked it up at school anyway and sings "heeeey sux u lady." I did not want her to that word. I was avoiding explaining what sexy means.

[cdeweese]

Originally Posted by corinne76 Lol about the sexy lady thing. I was trying sooo hard to not let my daughter hear that song. But she picked it up at school anyway and sings "heeeey sux u lady." I did not want her to that word. I was avoiding explaining what sexy means.

I love hearing kids sing songs and use the wrong words! Cracks me up

We "shelter" our kids in terms of I stay home (they no longer attend MDO), they can only watch one channel (Sprout) and I choose their friends (which isn't hard since they aren't in school yet). My kids will probably attend public school (I LOVED going to school), but we definitely won't be the parents who invite every kid over for birthdays and play dates. I'm choosy about who my children form attachments with and I want them to know about responsibility, self control, respect, etc. things that are definitely lacking in the world today.

[corinne76]

Originally Posted by cdeweese I love hearing kids sing songs and use the wrong words! Cracks me up

me too the only reason I didn't want her to hear the word sexy was because she's very into asking "do I look pretty?" imagine telling her it means pretty and she starts asking "Do I look sexy?" Uhm, no! not gonna happen in my house. Not yet anyway.

[anne_josh]

It is hard, even if you homeschool (and we don't). My reaction is not to shelter excessively, although I do screen media carefully. DS1 is allowed to do only approved games on the computer and on my smartphone. At school he has heard some things that I'd rather he hadn't, but nothing really horrible. He came home from soccer camp singing "I'm sexy and I know it" so we had a talk (he was not in trouble) about what that means. I asked him if he knew and he said no. When I told him that 'sexy' means 'girls think you are cute and they want to kiss you' he was totally grossed out :lol: So now he doesn't sing the 'hey sexy lady' part of Gangnam style, but he has seen the video and can do the dance. And it's great exercise. :P Anyway, you can't keep absolutely everything from them--but you can draw lines on the important things. We don't have cable, so if he's watching something it's on Netflix and I okayed it, plus there are no commercials. Advertising is one way that some really objectionable stuff can get in, not the least of which is commercialism. I do check his web browser history and I have only once found something I didn't approve. Most importantly, keep talking. If you openly communicate and discuss with kids, especially things that make you uncomfortable, they will learn they can always come talk to you. That's a good lesson to learn.

[DalesWidda]

At least they aren't going around singing, "beez in the trap" like my friend's three year old daughter was in a video on facebook. Seriously, it was gross. But I get it. I totally do. Fortunately, because I homeschool we've avoided a lot of that. Well, my middle dd goes to a private school now but there are only 15 kids in her class (two grades) and she doesn't come home with much that I would be worried about. We do a lot of activities outside of the home, but I am always around so if they see or hear something innapropriate we can talk about it. Honestly it's probably just going to get harder as they grow older. And they can ask for anything they want; doesn't mean they need it or should get it. You know the song, "I want a hippopatamus for Christmas?" Well, do you think she really got it?

[DalesWidda]

Originally Posted by nicolemariep We are a fairly conservative family, and I really want my kids to get to be kids. We have a TV, but the kids almost never watch it. I would say they average 1/2 hour of screen time per month. The ONLY thing that we allow them to watch without us prescreening it is VeggieTales. If we want to watch a movie with them, DH and I will watch it first by ourselves. DH wants to watch Brave this weekend to see if we can use it for movie night They never see commercials because we only watch DVDs. We listen to Christian music, pretty much exclusively. My kids (the 4 year-old especially) love the heavier/more alternative Christian music, which is fine with me. My 4 year-old knows the pretty much all the words to most of the songs we hear regularly on the radio and in church (DH plays guitar for the worship team). I love hearing him sing. He doesn't know any inappropriate songs because he doesn't have a chance to hear them. The kids don't play video games yet because I don't see a point. Maybe in a few years. But those will be screened as well. We homeschool. For various reasons, but wanting my kids to stay innocent for as long as possible is on the list. I personally believe that we live in a horrifying world, and I want my kids to enjoy being kids for as long as possible.

We LOVED Brave. We all watched it as a family. The only thing I didn't like was when someday mooned someday else (can't remember who). It totally went over my little one's head, although the older two giggled.

Anyways, I was going to say this is us, except they get way more screen time. But it's always videos/dvds. My oldest likes old movies like Shirley Temple, Old Yeller, etc. And we listen almost always to christian music too. All family friendly stuff.