As I change channels on the T.V. it seems like every second screen that pops up shows someone in military stance pointing a gun straight at me. Video games that are filled with guns and killing take up much of our teenager's day. Killing is so romanticized that some of our mass murderers even dress alike in long flowing coats. It's as though they're playing a game that might not be real in their minds.
In my youth, children played with toy guns and pretended to be either the good guy or the bad guy. They shot at each other and usually one or the other would fall down in an embarrassingly exaggerated death. It was all in fun...or was it? Have we always brainwashed our children to believe that firing a gun at another human being is okay?
I'm not saying that we don't brainwash our daughters but in a different way. How many of us mothers have automatically given our little girls dolls and play kitchens? I've noticed with the little boys in my family that they probably enjoyed playing with the girl's toys more than the girls did...and my girls loved playing with toy cars.
I watched in horror a T.V. program where the parents of a little boy painted his bedroom pink and encouraged his propensity of wearing pink clothing. I know I was wrong to be horrified but all I could think of is that other little boys would make fun of him. And I also wondered if his original love of pink was his idea or his parents. I honestly hope the future generations of children won't have hangups such as needing to wear traditional colors for their clothing but I'm hopelessly imprinted already.
I'm equally horrified when I see a little girl dressed like a grown woman. Whose fantasy is being promoted here? Unfortunately, a scantily dressed young girl is ogled by more old men than by boys her own age and that creeps me out.
There's a good chance that the way we condition our children by games or clothing or movies is pretty much how those children will act out as they grow up. We will reap what we sow.
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