Hello, everyone!
Setting clear rules and boundaries for movie-watching is one of the major rules in the family for the parents to enroll. Failure to do this, the children will go the extra mile in condoning evil things in the open and in secret. Defining the kind of content we should allow our children to watch should be based on maturity and age. Good content must be circulated or selected at home for the outward appearance of the child to society.
Furthermore, I recalled the day we watched movies with our parents, and it happened that the content wasn't to our age, my mummy who sat close to the remote, forwarded that part out and shouted at us for putting such a disc, and we were asked to take down the video and insert gospel song. We did as she said. The initial part of the movie was filled with moral lessons young children should have learned or emulate but the medial part of the movie was involved with sexual harassment, if not for my mum, we would have continued watching and looking at each other at what was happening. Parents are the models of setting boundaries for what we see, hear, and touch.
However, parents should establish specific times for movie-watching to avoid distractions from house chores, homework, and other crucial things.
Another scenario from the aunt's children. I visited them and I happily stayed for a week to help with one thing or the other. One day, the NEPA supply came and they put on Nigerian movies and watched them, I asked the senior to change to a cartoon channel, and my aunt's daughter declined to do what I asked her to do. I allowed them to watch for minutes. Unknowingly, they were fighting using sticks to hit someone's head in the movie, coming out of the kitchen I saw the scene in action. I immediately changed to a cartoon before NEPA took light. It wasn't up to an hour, my aunt's children fought, and the one whose eyes were sharp to the movie she watched, carried a ruler on the table and hit her sister's head. I saw it and when the mother returned from work I reported them to their mother and they received their beatings back to back. Since that time, I learned not for children to watch adult movies, because what they see is what they will practice. And I understood the reason cartoons are for children, is just to entertain and educate them to some extent. Avoiding violent content and disparity content. But content that encourages, teaches, and will shape their future should be highly recommended at schools and homes.
Moreover, parents should set up movie-viewing areas, where parents can monitor content appropriateness and promote a healthy sleep environment. Some children are exposed to areas of life that are not appropriate for their age because of bedroom movies-watching, such as pornography.
In this era of technology, where all things are deposited to social media platforms, parents are to nurture their children to the point they won't hide and watch movies that won't edify them. Bringing to them what sex education is all about, will go a long way to put them in place.
Overall, parental guidance in setting rules and boundaries for movie watching is pivotal as it would the children in the selection of movies that would enhance their potential in life. Bad Movies have set children's hearts on fire to do the wrong things. Parents, guidance, and elderly siblings should ensure to do the following.
Thank you for reading through.
This post is in response to the Hive Naija weekly prompt week 53
I love, I care, and I forgive.
I remain @peckypeace