Should I let the kids see that movie...

How many times do parents ask themselves that question? Hopefully it happens several times a month. We live in an electronic culture and full length films and T.V. shows are often just a mouse click away, or even just an iPod away. Hopefully as parents, we scrutinize each show for it's moral and social value and weigh the possible impact it will have on our children before we let them watch something. This is not always easy as there are many obstacles to a parent diligently accomplishing this. I will go through some of the common challenges a parent will typically face and give some suggested ways to overcome them.

1. LAZINESS: This obstacle makes the supposition that on some level you understand that there are certain philosophies, subjects, uses of language, and human activities that children should not be exposed to. Laziness always comes with a payoff. The payoff for laziness is the serving of ones selfishness. The feeding of that desire to seek your own personal pleasure above even the welfare of your own children. In the movie decision realm, laziness is most often manifested in following manner and with this motivation be it conscious or unconscious; If I let the kids watch that movie... then I will be free to do what I want without being interrupted.
How to overcome laziness? Make the conscious, deliberate decision to take action. Laziness (sloth) always begins with a temptation. Fight the temptation by acting out the opposite virtue. Prudence in this instance is the opposite virtue, Prudence being: an intellectual habit enabling us to see in any given juncture of human affairs what is virtuous and what is not, and how to come at the one and avoid the other. Secular society recognizes this to a certain degree with it being manifested as follows. When confronted with the need to make a decision people are told to "make a list" of all the pros and cons of the decison. In todays society though one thing is left out, the fact that there is an objective right and wrong. So what's right is left up to the subjectiveness of the individual which can lead to quite a conundrum.
Bottom Line: practice prudence taking into account the objective nature of right and wrong.

2. IGNORANCE: This obstacle can be difficult to overcome. Ignorance is unfortunately a word that has been corrupted in our times. It is viewed as a synonym of stupid. It is not the same as stupid however, it simply means that you lack information or knowledge. Stupid would be if you had information and failed to act appropriately on it either because you were lazy or because you just couldn't apply the knowledge due to limited capacity to process thought. I don't believe there are many truly stupid people in this world. I do however believe that there are many ignorant ones, some are intentionally ignorant, some unintentionally, and others are manipulated into ignorance.
The only way to defeat ignorance is to get informed. The word informed is very important.
Inform: 1320, "to train or instruct in some specific subject," from L. informare "to shape, form, train, instruct, educate," from in- "into" + forma "form." Sense of "report facts or news" first recorded 1386. Informative "instructive" is from 1655. Informer "one who gives information against another" (especially in ref. to law-breaking) is from 1503.
Thus to defeat ignorance we must shape and train our minds through education. This is best done by studying from a source that recognizes the existance of an objective right and wrong in moral philosophy.

3. REBELLION: This is when the inmates run the prison, the sheep herd the shepherd, the tail wags the dog, the kid's dictate activities in the home. Our children, (and us parents) are fed a steady diet of new age psychobabble geared toward "building up" a childs self esteem. This is accomplished by encouraging democratic style decision making in the home where subjects are to be discussed ad-naseum. For decades we've been encouraged to only say positive things to our kids and redirect things away from the horrible absolutism that the word NO represents. Children need, and are happier with, well informed energetic parents who are decisive and fair. I read a recent report where the problems associated with being obsessed with oneself and the entitlement mentality that goes along with it has gone up dramitically over the past two decades. It was postulated that this was a result of the "self esteem building" philosophy that has taken over our education system is responsible for this.
Children are going to complain when they get told no. That's just the way it is. So what... life contains many opportunities to be disappointed. Why deprive our children of the education in how to handle disappointment appropriately? If they make a big production out of getting told no, (throwing a fit) then deal with appropriately by grounding them, giving them extra chores... whatever. The parents need to be in charge. If there's a power vacuum, it will get filled by someone.

I recommend this website for reviewing films. It will help you make the decision as to whether or not a film is appropriate for your children to watch.

Pyro