Wow, I was wondering what that pain was in my back last night.
My message doesn’t seem too profound but seems to strike a nerve in a couple. I simply say that kids are influenced by a lot of things, both good and bad. If parents believe they are the only source of influence for their kids, they are blind, dumb or simply ignorant.
If that is not correct, then why do companies spend millions on advertising? Then why do kids wear their hat backwards after seeing Ken Griffey do it? Why do girls around the world start showing their belly buttons after Britney makes it popular?
It’s no different then when many of the older crowd was growing up. Did everyone all of sudden come up with the idea of disco dancing. I’d say John Travolta or before him, Elvis may have influenced a few people.
The point is that kids and people in general are influenced by a lot of things in society and not just through people we may typically consider “role models” and the problem is that the influence is not always positive.
It would seem to be that it would be hard to argue with my basic premise since it is easily provable and common sense to most although a couple posters have.
TR writes quite strongly, “I have a bulletin for you--- nobody sells nobody nothing if the parents do their thing in bringing up their kids—“. And the next post was Tasmit saying he agrees 100%.
My respectful reply to them is that I would be quite surprised if everybody couldn’t come up with a story they know of where solid parents had problems with kids that were influenced by others negatively.
As I said in a previous post, ideally we are all superb parents and our kids can look at us as a role model as well as for guidance on tough issues. So let’s just say that the problem is not our kids. So who are all the kids that are doing the drugs, stealing our possessions and having kids out of wedlock and surviving on welfare? Many of these kids don’t have the guidance at home or the inner strength to fend off the negative influences of society. The best many of us can do for these kids is to help clean up society even if it’s only by holding celebrities accountable.
I strongly disagree with some such as TR who say, “it is not a matter of caring-- it is taking care of my "home fires" first not someone I dont even know—“ and “I am not here to save the world-- you can try if you wish but that boat does not have enough oars”.
TR, I am one that believes the boat you write of, does have enough oars, the thing that is lacking are more people to row the boat. We need more people to stand up to the bad influences in society. We need more people to hold celebrities and politicians accountable for their actions. I did just that and am being scorned by a couple of people such as your self for doing it.
I believe parents should know what their kids are listening to and I provided the lyrics from the thug, snoopdog as an example. I think more parents should investigate what their kids are hearing and whom they are supporting by buying it. I would hope all parents would want to keep this filth from their kids.
Bbrulz writes that he doesn’t want anyone telling him or his kids what to listen to and then goes on to throw in a comment relating it to a political and/or religious agenda. He writes, “If I choose not to listen to something, it will be for my reasons not for your political or religious agenda”. A few posts later he writes, “sbk, do you have a list of books you would like to burn as well”?
It never ceases to amaze me how some kinds of people have such a problem with others speaking out against filth. The so-called defenders of free speech are having a problem with those of us enjoying it.
So in ending, I will say that if you believe parents are the only influence upon your kids you are misguided. We all should make our family our first priority. But to stop there would be shortsighted and even selfish. While we cannot wave a magic wand and install positive values in each of these troubled individuals, we can all play a part in helping to reduce the negative influences in society by holding celebrities accountable whether it’s thug rappers or athletes on steroids.
And to TR, who writes, “SBK has overstepped his bounds with me-- either because of ignorance or hatred”.
It definitely has something to do with “Ignorance”.
