Mini Misfits

Raising Kids in today’s world is not for the faint of heart.
There is so much out there available to kids.
Cell Phones, Tablets, Video Games (with chat rooms), Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube…
Just to name a few.

All of the above have one thing in common.
The ability to alter an adolescent’s brain chemistry/thought processes, emotions, and heart.
Streaming Services also steal attention from our children.
All of the above leads to them forming unhealthy habits of what to turn to for comfort and relaxation.

Guarded Guide

We, the parents, caretakers, and grandparents have to help them navigate the world before them.
We teach them to be on guard against all sorts of negative influences in this world.
There is a LOT that they are up against, the internet is endless.
The best thing one can do as a Guarded Guide, is open the lines of communication.
Let them know that you are there to talk about anything they come across.
Without you as the sounding board, they’ll turn to their friends, and their friends can only offer advice based on peer knowledge, not the knowledge and wisdom of a life lived.
Creating the confidence that all topics can be discussed is super important.
That doesn’t mean that all topics are acceptable, but all topics can be discussed in a respectful way.

Supportive Structure.

The best way to help our children from losing their childhood is to offer support and structure.
They’ll grow up too fast if we let them grow at the rate the world around them would have them grow.
Let them be children.

Show Support: When they bring a topic to you – don’t minimalize it, doing that may bring them to think it’s really no big deal. It’s a fine balance. Blowing it out of proportion can also cause waves.

Ask questions: Where did you hear it? Were others with you?
Was someone showing you this or did they tell you about it? How did it make you feel?
This helps us the caretaker to know if the topic they are bringing up is serious enough that adults need to be involved or safe enough to lend some advice but then let your child come to their own conclusions.

Sound Structure: When it comes to the electronics of it all…
Set limits. Even if it means resetting some structure in our own lives.
I was listening to a lecture on technology and our brains.
This guy, tossed out a real zinger for me to swallow.
We give our kids limits, yet we don’t set them for ourselves. Who is it that they mirror?
Now we are adults and because of this, we can handle more input than a child.
Also, children, shouldn’t run our lives. Therefore setting hard and fast rules provide boundaries.
If your kid gets 45 minutes a day, and they question why you get an hour and a half
(or whatever limit you set for yourself) it’s simply because I’m the parent.
Whatever you set, stick to it, they’ll see this and grow up keeping the structure provided.

Happy House

It’s not the norm, the status quo, the current culture.
Putting limits or monitoring what is watched/listened to…
Yet, it should be.

What if children didn’t have Cell Phones until they started to drive?
Even then, just the ones with the ability to call (light phone) until college…
What would life look like, what would their mental health look like?
Their ability to focus…

Our house’s rules: No phones until you drive, it won’t have internet.
A phone with internet = Graduation…
We definitely get the “but everyone else has a phone” from our oldest two.
But we aren’t everyone else…

Our kids get 45 minutes of TV a day…After the day is done, if the day ends late, no show.
They get 2 hours of Game time on the weekend and a Family Movie night.
They also get the opportunity to earn extra game or movie time for things like:
Good Grades, Chipping in above and beyond, and being kind and generous within our community.
The above is just an example, not a suggestion.

We aren’t perfect parents, by any means. We fall short, get distracted go over our time limit.
We also get busy and our children may get away with a show over their own limit because of this.
Owning that, we move on and get back into a routine.

Mini Misfits

When the world tells us it’s okay to accept everything, that PG 13 is safe, that lyrics we listen to won’t change our hearts, that just a little bit of something won’t have a lasting effect…

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:2

The evil one lives all over technology and is very well disguised. They may not get everything that other kids get, and that’s okay. They are still very much in the world around them, but we as parents have to help guard those little hearts, they’re not old enough to guard their own just yet…

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

John 17:15-18

Be watchful, we can’t avoid all of the evil that’s come to live in this place, but we can do our best to protect our families from the slippery slopes that evil brings…

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

1 Peter 5:8

We want to do what is true, noble, right or pure...
It’s when we try our hardest to live a life closer to God that the devil works harder to put distractions in place that build a divide. Building boundaries that help keep areas of our life from seeing this divide, is something we can do, an action we can take, to help enable us to do the right thing…

For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep doing.

Romans 7:18-19

Mini Misfits are mighty and magical!

Bold Orange words lead elsewhere.