Changes in the way we raise our kids

As freeringo alluded to in another post, social networking is becoming all the rage these days, for people of all ages. I know most of us here are in the younger age bracket, but how do you see things changing as far as raising kids these days is concerned? Is there really any point in protecting them from the world anymore? Is there truly a difference in the way we interact with one another and the information we share in the advent of internet social networking? Just some thoughts to ponder, I'm sure I will have more. What about you?

Last night I hear " OK baby I got a super hot p orn to watch"
I said " what the h ell are you watching"
South Park Dad.
Little Jimmy got a p orn by mistake instead of Lord of the rings.
After discovering his manhood and having the dvd taken away,
he continued to refer to his manhood as his precious.

Yes indeed we live in a new world and our children
have seen more in a year than I did in my first 20.

Okay, as a SLIGHTLY older forum member and mother of 2 young children on their way to being tweens (they are 10 and 12), I had to weigh in on this. First, yes I strongly believe that as parents we MUST work diligently not only to protect our children but even more so to teach them how to protect themselves. Maybe because I'm an adult and I see it all, the world seems much less child-friendly than it was when I was a kid. However, shielding our children from everything does not prepare them to be teenagers and adults. Children need to be taught that the internet is full of strangers and that, just like in the real world, they should not EVER share personal information (last name, address, phone number, town they live in, pictures, etc.) with anyone on the internet. As parents, we need to remember that first and foremost our job concerning our children is to teach them and guide them. If you can do that AND be your child's friend, then God bless ya. But if you feel torn between being your child's teacher/guardian and being their friend, PLEASE let teaching them be your first choice, even if it means sometimes being harsh and disciplining. Some of life's lessons that I took to heart the most came from my parents standing their ground on certain issues like safety and honesty.

As a new father, I sometimes wonder how my bay girl kylee,is gonna make it in this world, when it is as hard as it is now. Me and my wife have already decided that public schooling is not a option, and that we are going to home school kylee. I am worried this my effect her social life to some degree, but we have decided that other things will substitute nicely such as family gatherings, the park, the ymca swimming pool, our own social networks of other young people who have little kids kylees age, movie trips and any other thing where she can be shielded from the corrupt public schooling system that is in place now. I would rather do all this extra stuff for kylee, then to see her come home from school everyday, crying because someone called her this or that, and beat her up, and her being forced to be somebody she isnt to fit in with what "IN" in public schools.

This type of treatment in public schools has repeatedly shown to have long term psycological effects and cause mental health problems, which has lead to even worse things like the colubine high school massacre, or a few serial killers, just to name a few things wrong with our system of socializing our kids.

Its a big scary world out there, even for me, but I will never thrust my child into a enviroment that is not beneficial to her well-being and state of mind. There ae other options and other ways of doing things. I always hear about how way back in the day things were different, and people respected each other, and there were modest morals and such things like this. The system of society isnt like it was back then either. Its the system that needs an overhaul, and money shouldnt be the issue, our kids should be.

My two year old son has got a few years before he actually is able to explore the internet. Pretty much you can search for anything and its been that way for years. Its just much easier to go to sites that you don't want your kids to go too. There are ways to put restrictions on certain sites. The thing that I will worry about now is things and words they are letting slide on network television. My son watches some tv shows with us and its crazy that you can pretty much say a** or B****, etc... I just know that in a few years its gonna get out of hand where he can take charge of the remote control and turn to a channel where there is a lot of violence and bad language.