Parents, your children are calling you!

I’ve just realised that my life is about to move to a new age category. A few months ago I registered with a new Doctor’s surgery and had to fill out some personal information and I was still in the 21-29 bracket, but as I type I'm mere months from my 30th birthday I am about to having to tick the 30-39 check box. I don’t know why I’m surprised, the signs are everywhere; for the past couple of years the people in my life have been getting married, buying houses and having more and more children (seriously, they're popping them out everywhere). And I guess it's this progression from youthful checkbox to maturity laden checkbox is the reason I find myself writing on this particular subject matter - parents - or the lack there of.

Reading ‘The Week’ as I do every week, I came across a story focussing on whether young children were unduly sexualised in the media and how that makes them interact with one another. Boys treating girls as sexual objects, young women seeing sex as a legitimate way of realising their dreams. After reading the whole piece all I could ask was WHERE WERE THE FREAKING PARENTS? And not just where were the parents, but where were they when they could still make a difference? As parents surely it's our job to be the most positive influence in our children's life . To shape their World view because the last time I checked it wasn't the media's job to raise children - it was their job to sell units! But that doesn’t mean if parents don’t take charge of what they're consuming the media won’t.

So instead of pressurising the government into serving up a ‘Mc-Happy Meal’ of censored entertainment to ensure the future of our children, why don’t we take back control? You don't like the fact your children can see Lady Ga Ga flashing her crotch in her latest video looking like an extra from Prisoner Cell Block H you can do something about it - turn of the TV. Wondering why a 9 year old is talking about being too fat or the fact there is an alarming rate of eating disorders in children under 10? It might have something to with the same child sits in front of 'What Katie did Next' every week ingesting the utter nonsense emanating from everything Jordan does and the messages her ridiculous lifestyle endorses. Wondering where your son is getting his questionable views of women from? Maybe refuse to buy him latest copy of Nuts magazine and replace it with something a little less breast heavy.

It’s not rocket science, if we want to stop the ‘pornification’ of our children and change the patterns of behaviour, it’s up to us, otherwise we’re just shifting the raising of our children from the media to the government and not where it should lie... with us.