Friday, September 26, 2008

Gimme a break! (mmm, kit kats)

I've listened to the Christian radio station a bit more again lately. For a few days I seemed to click on it at the same time during my drive to work and they were playing the same clip from a previous show.
The morning DJs are a married couple who I think adopted a daughter somewhat recently. They've had the little girl on there before talking about her toys or whatever. Well, now it's time for the little girl to go to pre-school (maybe it's kindergarten, but I think only pre-school). The clip starts with the dad saying something like "That's it! Just take her out of school right now!" in his smooth, calm voice. Then it has the mom on the phone saying "I just dropped her off for school and as she's walking up the stairs and some little boy comes up and says hi and they hold hands and walk in together!" in her squeaky, pretend freak out voice. The parents, apparently, are appalled but kind of in an isn't that cute way.
This drives me nuts!!! Okay, the kids are in pre-school, so holding hands is something they probably do all the time- with mom and dad, siblings, teachers and nannies, and their friends. It's NOT a sign or symptom of immorality. Secondly, even if the kids are like "this is my boyfriend" or have that way of thinking, holding hands is SO innocent. If it's not, I'm pretty sure it's the parents' fault for letting the kid know there is any more than that out there. Kids just don't have those hormones etc. driving their behavior. Even "playing naughty," I think, is pretty innocently and curiously driven and should be handled with care.
As I thought about this and how much it bugged me (as I said, I had to hear it for a few days in a row) I remembered when I was in 3rd grade, one day I spent the afternoon talking to and working with a kid on something. For this reason alone, I decided he was cute so I asked him to be my boyfriend. He said he had to ask his mom. This was probably a Friday because I remember it being a few days before he told me he wasn't allowed to have a girlfriend and by that point, I didn't even really care. As a grown up, I think it's kind of silly that the mom would care. I also understand the mom's need to teach the kid what is right etc. I'm just saying, it really was harmless.
I had a friend in college who had a 2 year old daughter. The daughter had a tank top she loved to wear. The mom, hoping to instill modesty in her daughter from the beginning, wouldn't let her wear it without a shirt underneath it. Again, I get it, but also again, it seems pretty silly to me. She's two! She probably still has to have help going to the bathroom. I think the modesty thing will come in time.
Another time on the radio station they had the little girl on the show talking about her dolls. They're some kind of Christian faith dolls that come with story books about values. As they talked about them incessantly, they sounded like the "righteous" version of the American Girl dolls my sister had when she was little. I think the American Girl dolls are beautiful and high quality. Each one is a character based at a certain time in history and her books tell stories to teach kids what was going on at that time period- slavery, the Great Depression, etc.
The radio station seemed to refer to the "other" dolls, the "secular" dolls as if they were sub par. The Christian dolls were so much better because they focus on things that really matter. Okay great, but doesn't history and society and education matter too?

2 comments:

mudderbear said...

It sounds like they are self-righteous and judgemental to me. How does that spread peace in the world?

Emily A. said...

Lol. Conservative Christians are weird. Its like they think through bible rhetoric instead of logic. Shouldn't we think in terms of religion and logic?