Do you remember being a child and running across something inappropriate? Maybe a porn magazine or your parents spooning in the bedroom? Do you remember that confused feeling you got and that funny feeling in the pit of your stomach?
When my children were young, I called that the “oogie” factor. I told them when they felt like that, it wasn’t meant for their age and they needed to come and tell me. This is built into us as a protection sensor. Just a generation ago, we were protecting children from those things that just aren’t age-appropriate. We were pretty much on the same page with this, as were schools, day cares and society as a whole.
We wanted to keep children innocent as long as possible.
Why are movies rated? Why are porn magazines mostly sold in specialty stores where children aren’t allowed? Why are they wrapped in brown paper and only sold to people 21 and older (used to be, anyway). How has it changed so drastically so suddenly? Why do school boards and now public libraries suddenly think that kids can handle this? Why is this being pushed so aggressively?
I have yet to hear an explanation as to why these so-called “experts” think that this is now appropriate for children. It goes along with the “normalization” of society as far as making things that used to be considered too adult-like for children suddenly OK. In fact, we’re all being “normalized” to think that crime is OK because there’s so much of it that it can’t be controlled anymore, so we should just get used to it.
Defunding police and flipping the whole narrative to make them the bad guys was just the beginning. Not putting criminals in jail, let alone even requiring bail from them, is now normal. When, not if, you get hit with a crime against your person or property, good luck. Now, add this latest assault against society and especially our children and in another generation I can’t even imagine what will be considered “normal.”
I was recently joking to my husband that considering the state of our schools right now and how the students dress (or barely dress), that the next generation might just get out of bed and say, “I don’t feel like getting dressed today, I think I’ll just go to school naked,” and that will be acceptable.
Where does it stop? Sex in the hallways? Most parents just want to protect their children from bad elements and things that aren’t appropriate. That’s built in too, at least it should be. Stop vilifying them.
Sheryl Isaacson
Chehalis
