Mysti’s post about children/teens being affected by television really got me to thinking. It goes so much farther than that. Like I said in my response to her and as most people know, I don’t have children. But I’ve been one, and I’ve dated a few guys before choosing my husband. So, before anyone thinks I’m telling anyone else what to do, I think I’m just warning the potentialities and speaking about some of my experience.
One thing not discussed is music. Now, I’m not going Tipper Gore on anyone here, but at a certain point I think music becomes more important to a teenager than tv. I know it did for me. They can plug their earphones into their head or go to a friend’s house, or more likely, car, and just be in another world. Considering the complete degradation of women that today’s sad excuse for music is, I think that would scare the poop out of me as a parent. Someones buying this stuff and its not just 30 year perverts who like to hear about booty shakin’. I guess as a parent you would need to be on it, yet again, listen to it, talk to them, even find out what friends listen to. But it sounds like from posts/responses, that is just the moment when many parents say, “I’ve done my job, hopefully they’ll make the right choices, and turn out okay. I don’t want to hassle them too much at this point.” Read: I’ve been doing this 15+ years, I need a break. Hey, be pissed but doesn’t it seem what many do? If your kid acts out and you have to deal with it, don’t you find the energy to muster to pick his ass up from jail? Well? Muster it before.
I liked totally different things when I went into my music mode. Beatles, Led Zeppelin, oh and Dead Kennedy’s, but really oldies like Jimi Hendrix. I liked Def Lepard, etc. I consider it all music appreciation since all of this stuff was Super Oldies by the time I discovered it. My deal was losing myself in music. I wonder anyone who can take degrading hiphop and play it over and over and get so much good out of it. After all, some things are the base of music, teaches you timing, and is the stuff that gets copied over and over. Even if I had my personal issues going with it, the fact is that was good stuff.
Alright, to switch gears from morals and what your kids are getting out of life, here’s something a little different.
Momma’s please teach your boys how to cook.
I met a woman once who was adamant about teaching her son how to cook, clean, sew for himself, etc.
She said this was so he would never feel like he ‘had’ to marry a girl in order to have these things done for him. That he could take care of himself and choose the right person for him.
This guy, her son, was gorgeous. Whoa! Big blue eyes, really sexy, okay he was my age, so that’s not gross or anything. So you’d think she’d know the girls would be clamoring for him.
And I think she was doing him a service, if she did in fact teach him those things.
I tell you what, if she wanted to teach a man sewing (and many other skills of trust in his own hand-a-bility/fix it ness) she should send him to the Navy.
My husband is more comfortable around a sewing machine than I am. He sews on his own patches from the service, and sadly that’s better than me sitting down and creating clothes or something, like I wish I would do (am I afraid of that contraption?) Anyway,
But, Mamas, you just may be doing you kids a disservice feeding them that well balanced meal without ever showing them how to do it.
They will always depend on others for their food. In reality that can mean a tv dinner, McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell and every other cholesterol laden toxin that you have worked so hard to keep out of your precious person that you’ve raised since birth. This goes for girls too, because for many of us, our mothers played the part and did the cookin, I know mine must have been so happy when the work was done, she didn’t want to elongate it with getting me involved. So here I am at 34, learning this precious art. Some comes to me from remembering things my Mama said, and some is common sense. But when Husband genuinely complimented me recently that I really Was a good cook, that made me feel so good. It seems like such trial and error.
Now, with men/boys/teenage boys I can imagine a struggle against that none, NONE are portrayed as cooking well in the kitchen, the only choice is grilling or maybe a fire. That’s not reality. Men need to cook for themselves. Half if not more of my father’s problem with heart disease could probably be traced to bad food choices and perhaps that would have something to do with his complete knowledge of cooking is slathering peanut butter on a piece of bread or eating chicken out of a can for a ‘healthy protein’ otherwise the man is known by name at Carl’s Jr. in his hometown. His mama loved him, but she didn’t help him with a skill that is needed to live. Honey, if you eat shit what do you think your body turns into?
I know this is nothing new. It saddens me when, if I don’t cook for Husband, if I'm, not around to do it, then he has to go out to eat, whether fast food or not. He actually does have a tiny repertoire of stuff he could make, but it’s mostly grilling items. Anyway, his mom cooks great but didn’t pass it on to the kids. And I just think mamas should think twice about this, seeing as you are what you eat, literally, and we’re all getting fatter and fatter. Talk about dependency on oil, dependency on fast food is killing us.
I can't get a photo to show up on the page, using compose.Perhaps a Blogger blip?
Also, thank you for good ideas about keeping the cat off the plant. Thanks Jennifer for your response to the Valley Girls. Email me sometime would ya? I couldn't get back to your blog.
