I think most parents would agree that there is a fine line between exposing your child to something in healthy amounts and overexposing them? It is a tight line to walk as parents in this day in age when kids get exposed so easily and often because of social media and the world in which we live today. I think this too can pertain to positive things in your life. In this day, parents are convinced that their child(ren) need to be exposed to everything and then they need to be geniuses at all of them.
How do we parent with these pressures? How do we keep our children innocent as long as we can while at the same time educate them of the dangers of this world? How do we help them create their own filter and help them build personal integrity? How do we help them learn to be empathetic creatures while also help them to build a healthy sense of self worth without getting egotistical? These are questions I am in constant struggle with as a parent of an almost five year old who is understanding more and becoming more and more aware of what is going on around him. He is starting to notice things that I always worried about him noticing when he was in my womb and I would cover my belly with my hands.
How do we muddle through and make sense of it? How do we wage the positives verse negatives of exposing our kids to certain things?
First, I try to go to the Bible where I can find the guidance I need to help with those decisions. We also, often pray about protecting our kids from things we don't have control over. Prayer and searching for answers from our Lord and Savior is where we go first.
After that first step, it is a decision based on experience a lot of times. What we have experienced as kids, teens, adults, teachers, coaches, aunts, uncles, care givers, plays a role into how we respond to certain situations. We also have to think about what our kids are going to be around and what they are going to face in their surroundings and environment. Growing up, I did not see someone drink a beer in front of me until high school. My husband was around it all of his life. Neither one of us turned into alcoholics or abused alcohol early in our young adult lives. My son loves sports, he wants to watch sports all of the time, but with sports comes commercials containing violence and sex and alcohol. How do we deal with his exposure to these commercials when they are out of our control? Often we try to shield or hide these commercials from him, but how do we talk to him when he does get exposed to them?
How do you deal with issues of exposure to alcohol, sex, violence, bad words, etc that are all over in our world and their environments?
I have seen kids pulled from ballet, to band, to cross country and the back to jazz dance class. Pulled in so many directions that their school work is hurting because they are exhausted and too busy for homework.
How do we make sure we expose our kids to enough different things so they are well rounded and have options from which to choose to find what they enjoy and are talented, while still allowing them time to be children and have play time with their friends and family time at home?
I have seen kids as young as two dragged kicking and screaming to soccer practice. I have seen teens burned out because they have been pressured to perfection on the piano and practice is painful to them.
How do we make sure we expose them to hard work and perseverance without overexposure them and pushing them to hate it or you?
I really don't have the answer to these questions. I think every parent has to figure out what works for his/her child(ren). I think decisions have to be made based on every child individually, depending on their personality and tendencies.
But I do think these are questions we need to consistently ask our selves as parents and as a society. How are WE influencing children by the decisions we make as to what we expose our children to and how much we expose them to it? And how can we prepare them to be adults that make decisions about their own exposure to things that might temp them to do good or bad things? It is a difficult path we must walk as parents!
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