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Bad influences don’t just come from TV
Published November 4, 2009
We expect parents to be good role models for their children, but at the same time I feel like we are drowning in a sea of moral and social corruption. Then I ask myself, “How long can parents who are good role models protect their children from the outside world?”
This world of moral corruption is right outside our walls, including some of our past presidents’ behaviors, the moral trash that’s as close as our TV screens and the Internet, and some of us have pedophiles living in our neighborhoods. There is moral corruption lurking within many of our homes with the very children we are trying to protect.
How many parents will admit that their behaviors are socially corrupting their children and the world around them? Children learn by example. Children grow up to be parents and these corrupting cycles continue.
Sometimes it’s the little things like throwing your trash out the car window or leaving the dirty diaper in a parking lot. What about drinking a soda in the supermarket and then putting the can on the shelf between the boxes of cereal or leaving a half-eaten candy bar on top of the canned corn? All of this in front of your children. Or maybe the candy bar was theirs. You’ve taught them well. Who’s going to pick up the trash along the highway and in the parking lots? How many store employees does it take to keep the aisles clean of your debris?
So don’t complain about your taxes going up or rising store prices, because everyone is being paid to clean up after you.
Some of these could be called slight corruptions compared to teaching your child how to steal from the next-door neighbor, deal drugs or walk out of the department store with a DVD player hidden under his clothes. You might find it funny because you can walk out of a restaurant without paying for your meal, but no one is laughing but you.
Maybe you are one of the parents that have obscenities on your vehicle. Every other word out of your mouth is a curse word. Do you wear T-shirts to the mall with four letter words plastered on the front and back while you are pushing your child in a stroller?
None of you exhibiting these behaviors are good role models for children. You are morally and socially polluting our world where children need to be safe, to learn right from wrong, to be taught to respect themselves and others.
Do you want to change your behavior and be a good role model? Will you take that step today to change your behavior, to break that cycle of corruption for the sake of our children?
The children and I thank you!
Jean Paul is a former resource program director for Youth and Family Counseling Services. Contact her at Jmpaul2(at)gmail.com.
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