What is the Message You Want Your Child to Hear? 

Now is a very challenging time to be a parent to any child between the age of 6 and 22 years old. My children grow up in a much different world than I did. My parents didn’t have nearly as many problems controlling what I was exposed to as I face with my children. How many ways are there to access the internet or You Tube…not to mention everything else? A child capable of reading can access virtually anything…even children who can’t read find a way to access things you wouldn’t think they could. My wife and I have all of our devices locked down with passwords, content filters, etc…

You might ask why I use such a broad age range? The answer is simple: How easily influenced were you at that age range? At the lower end of the spectrum you have small children. This poses numerous issues that my parents never faced. For one, I would NOT want my child watching the news. Setting aside for a moment the fact the news is biased, it also contains a lot of adult content unsuitable for children. This is very problematic. I don’t want my children growing up oblivious to the world, but at the same time, how do you keep them informed without having to eventually explain some very mature subject matter. As a young boy, I was curious. I wanted to learn and I would watch the news on my own but the news reports of the mid-1970’s weren’t nearly as graphic or opinionated as today’s news. I can’t remember those telecasts ever prompting me to ask difficult questions of my parents.

At the upper end of the age spectrum you have college students. Academia is overwhelmingly liberal and in recent years it has emboldened some professors to preach very radical ideology. College professors carry a lot of influence over their students. They are supposedly ‘experts’ in their fields and they carry fancy titles such as ‘doctor.’ The average parent isn’t going to posses the same level of education. Therefore, if you tell your child something at odds with the professor, the more likely they are to believe the professor…the so-called expert. It will take them time to realize that the professor is a by-product of a system that operates according to its own rules…which are completely detached from reality. I’m sure it differs for each individual child, but it takes time for them to start to see their parents as ‘smart.’ Until then, all you can do is pray to God you have armed them with enough common sense to resist being brainwashed.

If all that weren’t bad enough, you really have to watch the hidden or not-so- hidden message being conveyed to your children through seemingly harmless children’s programming. I like some of the shows on Disney channel, but I also watch them with a skeptical eye. You can convey much through a show aimed at 8-15 year olds. Some shows are too political for my tastes and fortunately my kids don’t seem to resist when I steer them away from such shows.

My daughter was very excited about Disney’s newest TV movie, Descendants 2, which aired this past Friday. The music and dance routines in the film had my daughter totally engrossed. I wasn’t. I saw the film for what it was: A not-so-thinly veiled commentary on immigration. The descendents in the movie’s title refer to the children of the heroes/ heroines and villains/ vilenesses of various fairy tales. The children of the good guys live in a beautiful utopian village ruled by a benevolent adolescent king. The children of the bad guys live on an island with a dark cloud hanging over it and anarchy prevails. Unsurprisingly, the children who live there are given to evil ways. The movie deals with the king’s desire to welcome people from that island into his kingdom. The characters in the movie aren’t complex and the message is that through kindness and understanding (driven by a sense of guilt), the evil descendants can be rehabilitated and become productive members of the king’s utopian village.

The real world isn’t THAT simple. All bad people cant be rehabilitated. Everyone that comes to America doesn’t necessarily want to be a productive member of our society. Distinguishing immigrants that will embrace America from ones who will seek to destroy it isn’t easy and because of these people a lot of innocent people do get overlooked. We don’t live in a fairy tale world. Someone has to protect us.

Who is CNN to criticize the fact that Trump made political comments at the annual Boy Scouts Jamboree on Monday? If Disney is allowed to make political commentary to children, why can’t the duly elected President of the United States express his views to a group of teenage boys? CNN has used Elmo to bash Trump’s immigration policies, so where exactly is the line?

CNN decried his comments because he was talking to teenage boys. What could be their reason–because teenagers are too dumb to understand politics? I don’t think so. If kids are so dumb, then why do they try to brainwash them through other means? So, what did Trump say to the Scouts?

He talked to them about momentum, which he roughly defined as an attitude of never giving up. He encouraged these young men to work hard and to find something they enjoyed doing. He talked about dreaming about the impossible and then going out and doing it.

This is in contrast to the great lie of he left. Leftists are ‘concerned’ about the middle class and workers rights. The lie is this: Americans should aspire to be ‘middle class.’ Says who? Isn’t America the land of opportunity? I have always seen this country as a place that gives everyone a shot. If you are willing to work hard, if you have a vision and the determination to see it through…the sky is the limit. This Land was built on hard work. Everyone can’t be rich, but if not for the entrepreneurial spirit, who would create jobs? What should we teach our kids? Should we tell them to have modest goals and be happy with being average? OR Should we tell them that their future is in their hands…that if they work hard they will reap the rewards…that if they aspire to be great they can and will be great.

At his core, Trump is an entrepreneur. It’s all about effort and ambition. There is a saying that it isn’t bragging if you can back it up. Trump wasn’t telling these kids anything he didn’t embody. You can look at Trump as egomaniacal, and he undoubtedly is, but that is what drove him to succeed. He reminded the crowd that there was ‘no path to victory for Donald Trump’ in reference to those who predicted he would be routed in the election. When he first announced his candidacy, just for the GOP nomination, I set his odds at about a million to one. After securing the nomination, we were reminded daily that his odds of victory were less than 5%.

However, Trump embodies an intangible characteristic seen in highly successful people. He disregarded the odds. It’s rare, but some people are able to look at a challenge and correctly identify everything that must be done in order to achieve it. They believe in God and themselves. They rely on their own guts and instincts. They focus on only one thing: winning. Trump campaigned HARD…all the way to the end. He wasn’t doing any symbolic last minute stuff to salvage lost pride in the face of defeat. No. He believed he could win and it was inspiring. He beat absurd odds. He earned it. He worked for it. THAT is a lesson for all Americans. If you want something, work for it…don’t wait for it to be handed to you.

In the process of winning, Trump made people proud to shout ‘USA USA!!!’ He reminds us what it means to be patriotic. It’s ok to be proud of American power and prestige. It’s ok to say ‘Merry Christmas.’ It’s ok to be who we are as a people. We should love and cherish our country, not be ashamed of it. Most importantly, it’s ok to proclaim we are one nation under one God. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see where he was leading anyone astray. Trump isn’t perfect, but he isn’t going to let America die without a fight.