Are We Letting the Media Dictate Morality to Our Daughters? National Parents Center

Are We Letting the Media Dictate Morality to Our Daughters?

July 22, 2011 – 5:59 pm

Recently an acquaintance brought to my attention some recent trends in high school girls prom dresses. I was shocked to see a neckline almost reaching one childs belly button. Where I went to high school, we had a strict dress code. I can remember wanting to put the nickname Nanna Butt on a school shirt for a function and being told that the word Butt was too offensive. How is it in 15 years things could have changed that much?

Our culture has adopted the Im okay your okay mentality. Sex is being sold like a cheap play toy, and morality is being tossed out the window like a rotten apple core. Our children are adapting the fake world of Hollywood and all its airbrushed plastic body parts and assuming that it is real. Unlike movies, our lives do not always have happy endings when bad choices are made. We cannot go to the scriptwriter and always beg for a rewrite. We are accountable to the choices that we make. While I do believe in grace and second chances our action have repercussions and our children need to know that. According to www.sadd.org. Each year, approximately 19 million new STD infections occur, and almost half of them are among youth ages 15-24?

According to about.com, one in every ten births involve a teen mother. These statistics arent even beginning to scratch the surface of the emotional and psychological scars promiscuity can leave on our daughters. How then do I parent, when the normal of our society is shifting further and further from the values and choices my husband and I want for our daughters? How can we teach them to go against the stream of an immoral culture when the images of lust and perversion are being bought and sold like trading cards?

• I wrote an article some months back about how we spoke to our oldest daughter about sex at age five. Maybe that does seem young to some people, but we opened a dialogue with our daughter so now almost 5 years later she comes to us before she will go to her peers about questions. You need to be the trusted ground for your childs questions.

Being a parent to girls especially in a society where it seems their morality and integrity have been Swiss cheesed is not an easy job. However, as her parent the choices that you make and do not make will shape her destiny. You have got to determine the kind of women you want your daughters to be one day. You have got to determine while their still under your roof what standards you expect from them. You are accountable of how you raise them. Later in life, they will take that accountability on their own. Raise them while they are young. Teach them the ways in which they should go.

ABOUT THE AUHTOR:

Anna M. Aquino is a super fabulous woman of God, wife and mother of two daughters. Her bi-weekly Biblical teaching blog is read around the world and translated in India.That can be viewed at www.annamaquino.blogspot.com Shes been published in various publications. In addition Ms. Aquino has a new book,Cursing the Church or Helping it? Exposing the spirit of Balaam set to release with Destiny Image Publishers in March of 2012. If you would like to learn more about her please visit her website at www.annamaquino.com.

National Parents Center