QT-10011: Proverbs 22:6 (Let Them Be Children!)

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." - Prov. 22:6

Since I am assigned to teach in our church's youth ministry and shared a room with children of ages 4 and above, I have observed some of their behaviors. Whenever I hear something from their mouth, they always try to mouth words from the TV shows they have seen. Most of the words I've heard were from Pinoy tele-novelas. It was fun watching them play dead, play doctor, play like their idols, play like "lobos" or werewolves and vampires from ABS-CBN 's tv show Immortal. But have we ever listened closely to what they were saying?

"Kakaiba na talaga ang mga kabataan ngayon." (Children these days are so naive) - this are the famous words by people these days, specially by adults. But have we asked ourselves, are they truly naive?I don't know how many times have I shared this word of God but for the sake of our children, let us always be reminded the value of training our child the way they should be.

"As parents, have you ever wondered when and how they've learned those stuffs? What have you done about it?"

People these days start talking about sex, marriages and violence at a very young age. And as a parent, you maybe laughing when you hear some other children talk about it but when you hear it from your own child, it is a different matter. You'll most likely be furious at the person who taught them some of their words. Or we'll probably blame other children and start telling your child not to play with those BI (bad influence) child or children. Should we really blame those other children? Or should we blame ourselves for not trying to correct them?

Without our knowledge, these children learn by themselves just by watching TV. My son Ize surprises us sometimes when he says new things to us and we wonder when and how he learned about it. But it was a great surprise for us since we make sure to monitor all the tv shows that he is watching - we have even instructed his yaya of what tv shows Ize should and should NOT watch. It is a very tedious job as a parent to filter what they are watching but it is a very important investment of your time.

"Their minds are like sponges, they'll absorb every interesting information they find."

I remember one time, me and my wife were talking about our vacation in front of Ize when he suddenly asked me "Dad, what's vacation?". After explaining it to him, he said a few sentences trying to use the new word he has learned and at the end he was asking to have our next vacation at Disneyland - we just laughed and said "sure! if we have money." I also recall the time he learned the word "snore" and I used it like "Mommy also snores at night." and Leah laughed at that but we laughed harder when we heard him trying to snore and said "Hahaha! I'm snorsing! Look at me Dad. I'm snorsing!". He was very particular about how I used the word "snores" and made it a verb by adding an "ing" at the end and making it "snorsing".

Ize in front of a random shop in Stars Avenue.

Most common mistakes done by parents is the negligence in monitoring their child's tv shows. Most of the time, parents allow their children to watch tv shows that are not appropriate to their child's age without their guidance because they don't have time. Parents, it is the very reason why networks warn us before a new tv show is shown that some scenes may not be appropriate for children - yet we allowed them to watch it even without our guidance. And we say "they" are "naive". That is because we taught them to be naive.

It should be "Kakaiba na talaga mga magulang ngayon." (Parents these days are so naive) and not our children. Do you want your child to be branded "Naive"? thus making you naive too. All I can say is "Let them be chidren" and let them watch what they are supposed to watch. Let them watch cartoons or any children's tv show and let them enjoy being a child. Of course we still have to monitor if the tv show is showing violence or whatever is not appropriate for them. I recall my Dad saying "takpan mo mga mata mo" (cover your eyes) whenever there is an inappropriate scene on a tv show that we are watching. Those were the days when a lot of parents were still NOT naive (lol!).

These days, Ize asked a lot of new things to us and we discover a lot of new things he has learned from the TV as well. But since we only allow Christian Channel and Disney Channel, we are confident that whatever he's learning - it is good.

So train your children dear parents. Make time to filter what show they are watching and train them that way. Someday they'll learn the value of what you are doing and they'll pass it on to their children as well.