Pages

Monday, March 28, 2011

Whatever happened to parents in popular culture?


One of my favorite saying is--"It takes a village, to absolve me of the responsibility to raise my own children."

I have been watching too much television lately. As a result, I have noticed how children and parents are portrayed. When did parents become completely ineffective in the media? My favorite examples are the Mirena commercials and a luncheon meat commercial.

In the Mirena commercial(the African American version), a mom is trying to remember if she has taken her birth control pill and to decide if she would like another child. Meanwhile her two current children crash the shopping cart into the watermelon display while unsupervised in the grocery store, drop water balloons from the balcony while unsupervised at home, take the jelly beans that their father is eating one after the other while not supervising them in the yard, and pulling the dogs fur while they bath it unsupervised. Trust me the white version of this commercial is not any better.

Or let's look at the luncheon meat commercial where in the mother's and father's fantasy, it is a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with fine china and well behaved children. In reality it is a screaming scene of children throwing food and helpless parents eating sandwiches.

News flash--Mirena parents, you do not need any more children until you learn how to supervise and raise the ones you have.

Luncheon meat people, put down the sandwich and discipline your children.

Thank God, I have been spending a lot of time speaking at high schools to very responsible young people. They are focused on protecting life and achieving goals that are measured in units of intelligence and compassion. Their parents are involved in their lives.

If only the popular culture would take a moment to look at real children and parents, and stop trying to convince us that it everyone's responsibility to raise our children except ours.

No comments:

Post a Comment