LOVE, NURTURE, RESPECT AND PROTECT

Commonsense tells us that to be fulfilled, deeply happy, comforted, content and have the freedom and confidence to step away from us a little at a time, a child needs to be loved, nurtured, respected and protected. And deeper commonsense tells us that the two people who conceived a child, through their union together, should be the ones to take up that honoured calling – to love, nurture, respect and protect that child. If, for some reason, this is unable to happen, then a child MUST have someone else to fulfill that role.

Let me just share with you a shameless and damaging scenario going on the world, seemingly unnoticed. I'm aware that some people will say “Come on! Society has changed! You're so behind the times! We're not bound by the same shackles and restraints from the dark old ages.” But I would answer “Yes – I totally agree that society has changed. But on the whole are those positive changes? Do we have lower crime rates? Happier, more contented, healthier people? Safer living environments? People finding a deep joy and satisfaction in simple things? People finding pleasure from having to waiting for something, and then finally achieving/gaining it? Strong family relationships that are built to weather storms?” All these things are becoming very rare in this current society. Please - really do think about it.

As society changes, protecting our children becomes more of a challenge. This has been in my head, and heavy on my heart for a while now – even heavier on my husband's heart as he leads our family: Our children can't walk through town without their senses being assaulted by over-sexualised images and music. Right there, much larger than life, in the window of the chemist shop is a naked woman, holding a couple of flowers at her front – advertising perfume. In a department store, blaring from the speakers is the latest breathy singing sensation telling everyone about stuff that children don't need to know. Have you noticed that? If not – next time you become aware of it look right at your child – take a fresh look at their innocence and trusting. Is it appropriate for that blossoming little mind to be soaking up all those images and messages.

“You can't protect a child from it forever” you say. I never said “forever”. A precious young plant with its first two leaves sprouting would not be taken from the glasshouse and stuck out into the cold frosty ground, expected to flourish and grow healthily, bearing good fruit and providing shelter for the others. Our children need protection and sheltering to a healthy degree according to their stage in life. A nine-year old will see things in society, and wonder about what they mean, and why people do these things – and you should be the one they discuss their thoughts with. A three-year old might not have the same questions, but whizzing around their little heads may be many thoughts – some of which will disturb them and give them nightmares, or colour their attitudes or relationships with other people if left unspoken and unexplained.

A child who sees evil or explicit images and comes to accept them as normal will probably develop an unhealthy body image and carry a lot of inhibitions into their married life – if they choose to marry. And then they may be hounded by self-doubts and plagued by fear of how they compare to whatever their spouse is looking at out in the world.

And now, I may be treading on thin ice, but I feel I must share a thought that many in the world are ready to hear. I know that some people may feel confirmed in their thinking after reading this:

We speak of clothing our babies in natural fibres and comfortable clothes – keeping their little legs and arms protected from the sun, ensuring they wear a cotton hat in the heat, and a warm woollen hat in the cold. I realise that not EVERYBODY places importance on these things, and some people who DO are looked at sideways as tree-hugging hippies by other sectors of society! But the sideways glances are few, and on the whole people understand the desire to treat babies gently and respectfully in this way.

However! Somewhere along as the child grows older, a parent decides (or is bullied into it by the child) to have the child wear revealing short skirts or short-shorts, mature-looking stockings/patterned leggings, itty-bitty tank tops, tops with a low neckline, shoes with heels, jeans around their hips that fall down constantly, sweatshirts with images (skulls, fire etc) and words on them, pathetic “quotations” on t-shirts that the child has no understanding of, but adults read and laugh, the latest hat worn on the latest angle (does a child live in fear of wearing the peak of their cap on the angle/side everyone wore it on LAST YEAR?), the “right” underwear, clothes that cause a child to ADVERTISE a certain company (often with a negative or evil sounding name – carefully chosen of course by the puppeteers at the top to sound cooler, more gnarly, staunch and hard than the previous brand name they came up with); clothes that 20 or even just 10 years ago the LARGE majority of parents would never allow their child to wear. Why? Because they were allowed to be A CHILD!

Love, nurture, respect and protect. Look closely at what your child sees and hears, and keep their little bodies safe from perverted eyes and minds. Your child needs to be protected from falling down the dangerous slope that many people step onto when they are young of negative self-image, comparing themselves and losing their identity due to a desire to “fit in” to the mould the WORLD says they should fit in.