Monkey See, Don't do.

I sit here and watch my thirteen month old. She mixes a spoon in her play tea set then takes a sip. She picks up her play phone and holds it to her ear. When her baby doll is nearby, she'll pick her up and pat her back and sing “aah, aah, aah.”

My little girl is a sweet monkey. Monkey see, monkey do.

Her mimicking is innocent and adorable. She imitates the mothering and daily activities that she is exposed too.

Now, if you ask me to consider what my older children imitate, innocence is slipping far from the conversation. Their language, lyrics to songs they sing, baffling questions are proof. The T.V. they have been exposed to, the headlines unrated, the radio, the advertisements, the garbage spewed by the media...all these things shaping our environment, tempt my children to monkey see, monkey do in a negative way...it's hard not to, it gets in their heads and they want to try it for themselves.

It's human nature tempted by cultural downfall.

Just flipping through the stations on either t.v. or radio, my children will be bombarded with sex, perverted interpretations of sex, how a little pill can make you increase your sexual stamina, teenagers flirting with dangerous risk-taking, teenagers being convinced to just feel good, and how your body should look and feel if you just do this. What is the youngest generation going to attempt as they get older, when they are indoctrinated at such an early age?

Monkey see, monkey do is not as cute anymore when they get older. It is disturbing. Innocence is murdered at younger and younger ages because we have given control to media, to perverted ideas and thinking. We have allowed ugly voices to creep in and shape our children's minds alongside us and for us. I go running for the remote when it is flipped to the wrong station, or a commercial comes up that my nine year old is not mature enough (yes, there is age-appropriateness for exposure to certain things...regardless of what “progressives” may spout). We have killed the t.v. before and are often tempted to do so. Strict channel rules and commercial muting has been our path right now.

My little girl's innocence is going to be tainted in the next few years, probably earlier than any of her brothers. No matter how I try to guard her heart, once an image gets in her head the deterioration of innocence begins.

How can we as parents fight for a change? How can we take away the control from media, from immoral organizations, from activists doing their darndest to destroy what little moral fabric we have left?

I fear it's probably too late. My calling to equip my children is screaming louder than ever before. No, I will not put them in a bubble, but I will, for the love of anything pure, give them a fighting chance to enjoy their childhood with what innocence they can cling too. If that means turning the t.v. off, tough school decisions, open discussions about uncomfortable topics...then I will do that.

Whatever it takes to give them conviction to do what is right and not what they see.