The Parent Perspective - June 2007

The Parent Perspective is a monthly feature where parents tell us how their families navigate today's media-saturated environment.

This month's Parent Perspective comes from Laurie in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Laure is the mother of Alex (age 21), Zack (age 19) and Ben (age 16):

I was a stay-at-home mom since the birth of my first son. While raising my three boys, I limited television to an hour a day at the "bewitching hour" from five to six while I prepared dinner. They alternated between Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers, the two unanimous choices among my tight circle of “playgroup mothers” at the time.

As far as music, my husband and I were unrelenting as parents to send the message that vulgar content was unequivocally out of bounds. When they outgrew their penchant for Rosenshontz and the children’s musical trio of Sharon, Lois and Bram, they scanned the music stores for the clean (edited) versions of Puff Daddy and Busta Rhymes.

Wow, has the world changed since the days of a family sharing one computer and a stereo!

My two oldest sons are now away at college with their own respective PCs and iPods®, and sixteen year old Ben has morphed their rooms into part of his “suite”. Although we invariably find him multi-tasking with homework, IM and iTunes® (and yes, sometimes X-Box®), we did make one inflexible rule: that the room Ben designated as his bedroom would not contain any electronic media. Not only did the effects of media content concern us, but we were also apprehensive about how Ben’s sleep would be affected by its presence.

To current parents of young children, I think you have a taller order today in your capacity as gatekeepers. I don’t have many sage offerings other than to encourage you to dialogue about the various genres of music. Eventually they may come around and even marvel at the music you listened to as teens, and you’ll be stunned by seeing those familiar folders in their iTunes® libraries.

While it may be thorny to incessantly control your children’s TV and movie viewing selections as they get older, solicit their reactions to what they view and delicately disclose your take as well. My experience has been that despite the veneer, they do value what you think and continue to process it long after the discussion has ended.

 

If you'd like to share your own experiences or suggestions in a Parent Perspective, email us at cmch@childrens.harvard.edu