My children watch Glee. Well, most of the time they do. My youngest is 9, and he gets bored with it most times, but my older kids are 11 and 13, and they watch it, but mostly it’s me who watches it. I do know my daughter mostly watches it for the songs and the dancing, and the blond dude’s abs.
Our family is very open. I mean VERY. We talk everything. Sex, gay people, drugs, divorce, death, pregnancy, more sex. It’s all out there. Not all the time, but we do have conversations, and we don’t get embarrassed or scared when discussions come up. Vaginas and penises, armpit hair, zits, crabby mommy, mommy-has-her-period, mommy and daddy private time. Practically nothing is sacred. OK, that’s wrong, nothing is sacred because EVERYTHING is sacred, which is why we discuss everything.
Our family is sacred.
So that’s why we talk. We communicate. So, I let them watch Glee. Because I figure they are going to hear everything somewhere, sometime, so why not hear it here, in our home, where they are safe, where they feel comforted and protected. Where I am, and where their dad is, so we can have a discussion about it all together. So they can ask us, and we can tell them the right answers, and we can laugh about it and they don’t have to shy away from asking the questions that are on their minds.
Just the other day, I asked my 11-year-old daughter, “Do you have any questions about your body?” She said, “Nope, I’m good.”
OK then. She’s good. I’m good. That’s all I wanted to know.
Back to Glee. Yes, there’s some “out there” stuff on the show. But there’s some really good stuff too. About bullying, and acceptance, and about making mistakes and forgiveness, and yes, about being gay, and tolerance. I want my kids to know there are different people out there and all of that is OK.
So here’s what’s been troubling me. I know some parents don’t let their kids watch Glee. I also know a lot of kids watch it anyway, without their parents knowing they watch it. Which to me, totally proves my point. Don’t you see? By being open to my children, and having these lines of communication open like we do, there’s nothing we need to hide from them, and they from us.
I’m not saying I’m right and the parents who try to protect their children are wrong. Because of course, I’m trying to protect my children too. I’m just not sheltering them from the things in life I can’t control.
I am just trying to figure out in my head how protecting children from the scary things in life is going to keep them from not experiencing or being around the scary things in life when they come face to face with it?
Do you know?
Well Stpeh, Here is one more thing that you and I have in common! Chris and I are also very open parents. I totally relate with the question about is it sometimes too much. I worry about it from time to time but for the most part I feel like we are doin gthe right thing, the right thing for OUR kids.