"Of Course She's Beautiful!"

Author's Note: Sorry it took so long for my second post. I misplaced my password and then my modem died. One week without the internet showed me just how much I relied on looking things up. Glad to be back at it.

TV isn't safe for young children to watch without a parent in the room. You might be ready to click over to another website right about now. STAY WITH ME. I'm not an extremist and I do realize I live in the world and not apart from it. Truth be told, I probably have too many televisions in my house. And there are a few shows I like that really make me laugh. I probably never miss a Colts game unless I'm at church service, although I've slept through a lot of the games this season.

Let me relate just a little story about what happened this morning. I was sitting on the couch waiting for my first attempt at Monkey Bread to cook in the over. So, 25 minutes until cinnamon and butter bliss. So, with J on my lap, I turned the television on to the Qubo channel. That's got to be the coolest kid's station. The cartoons don't represent adults as idiots waiting to be corrected by their children. They teach good moral values in many of the shows. And if you find yourself up late at night and can't sleep you will be rewarded with old episodes of He-Man. Boy, He-Man is really lame when you're an adult. And why doesn't he put on some pants. It reminds me of the Saturday Night Live Fun House skit, The Ambiguously Gay Duo. Seriously, shaggy underwear bikini pants. That's the height of fashion on other planets?

Well, we're watching Jane and the Dragon when it goes to commercial. Usually this is the time my kids start shopping for the toys that are advertised (today it was the blanket puppet???). But this time the commercial was for some weight loss product. My girls sat and watched as one woman after another promoted a weight loss patch guaranteed to make you thin, beautiful, more employable (seriously), and stronger. It's was the fountain of vanity. My brain was thinking quickly about whether to mute it or turn the channel.

At the end of the commercial weight loss commercial a grandma says "Now I'm beautiful!" J looked at the television and said "Of course she's beautiful. Daddy, she's already beautiful. She doesn't need that." Out of the mouth of babes. A marketing expert somewhere just got smacked down. A six year old blew up his ad campaign!

But that's just a microcosm of what's on television. Count on one hand the commercials that sell their product and don't use sex. Local car commercials are about the only ones that don't use that method, instead going for loud and obnoxious voiceovers. I honestly saw a commercial the other day that used sex to sell butter. Butter! How dumb have we gotten? Marketers have adults pegged, but my six year old saw right through it. That old lady was pretty without the patch.

We've just got to use common sense and remember what God's Word tells us. Fathers, it's our job to monitor these things in our home and lead. LEAD! I'm big on that for future note. Let's be aware of what's going into our kids’ eyes and ears. No, we can't keep them from everything. Nor should we try. But the principles are there for us to use, so let's use them.

Deuteronomy 7:26 Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Utterly abhor and detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.

Psalm 101:2-3 ... I will set before my eyes no vile thing. ...

Alternate Idea: Buy some movies you watched as a kid, or go rent a movie from the library. Pop some popcorn and have a movie night. Set aside one night a week to sit together and enjoy television. Use it as a tool to bring your family together. Don’t use it to babysit your kids or let yourself zone out. Good luck!

Memories in a Box

I can't seem to keep everything in my head. Do you have that problem too? If I write something down or create a list I can work all day long, but if it's not on paper where I can cross it off my list it's got about a 10% chance of success. With that in mind, I keep a wooden box on my dresser. Inside are blank index cards and a pen. It's a kit of sorts. See, I'm a single Dad now and I want to capture the moments that I might not remember later. So, at night before I go to bed I sometimes get that box off the dresser, pull out an index card and write my kid's name across the top with the date. Here's some examples:

7-10-11 I
You found your whistle today! You've had a fake whistle sound for a couple of years now - just ask me and I'll do it for you. Now you can really whistle. You did it for the first time at the Frost Bite when Grandmother and Granddaddy were visiting. We all cheered!

9-26-11 H
This morning before school you tied your shoes by yourself! I think you watched J and learned from her. I don't remember working with you on it, but that's just like you to pick it up on your own. You can even do double knots. So smart!

11-9-11 J
You lost your second tooth today. We snuggled on the couch in the evening and you wiggled you tooth. You let me grip it with a napkin and two tries later it came out! We laughed and looked at the tooth in your hand together.

It doesn't take long to collect a few dozen memories. On days I'm down or missing my kids, I can pull these out of the box and think about the great times we're able to share. If you are a single dad, or not, don't overlook all that advice about "they grow up so fast". I think I've heard that from every old person who's seen me in the grocery store by now. But, they're right you know. Sometimes you only notice your kids have grown when they get something off the kitchen table. You remember that just 6 months ago they couldn't even see over that table. How did they do that without you noticing? Collect the memories any way you can. You're not going to remember it all.