Top Tips for Choosing Entertainment for Your Kids

Top Tips for Choosing Entertainment for Your Kids - Parenting Like HannahWhat’s the last movie you took your children to see? What are your kids’ favorite shows or games? What books do your kids read for pleasure? It would seem like entertainment marketed to their age group would be appropriate for your kids. Or if it is a “hit” all of your kids friends have seen, then surely it must be fine. Right? Not so much.

Whether we are aware of it or not, what our kids watch can influence their thinking over time. It can literally change the way their brains are hard wired in some cases – making it much more difficult to think, speak and behave in the ways God would want them to do.

Yet, most parents willingly allow, and even encourage, their kids to watch all sorts of entertainment and play any number of games without having done any research other than perhaps noticing a rating. Sadly, even Christian parents will say that anyone checking closely in to what their kids are watching and playing for entertainment is overreacting. They believe the home and church environments will compensate for any potential ungodly messages their kids see or hear.

Yet, we are seeing an entire generation swayed to believe ungodly ideas and even encouraging others to adopt them, while still identifying themselves as Christian. Huge societal changes in ethics and morals have occurred because people in Hollywood waged a campaign by subtly and then not so subtly brainwashing people to believe God’s commands were outdated and ignorant and that “enlightened” thought (that happens to be the exact opposite of what God requires) is actually what is best.

As a Christian parent, you must be extremely careful with what your children are allowed to consume for entertainment. You can’t and probably shouldn’t protect them from everything that could possibly be wrong – or they would never watch or read anything other than the Bible. You do, however, need to weed out more than just things rated “R” or “MA”.

We will share more specific tips tomorrow for which areas to monitor. Our most important tip though is that you absolutely must monitor what your children are consuming as entertainment. As a parent, it can be a huge burden on your time, but there are a few shortcuts you can take that will make it easier.

Failing to monitor the entertainment your kids consume means that for every hour they watch a show or movie or play a game, they have had possibly an hour of someone actively pulling them away from God and what He wants them to do. Most of us don’t have the time and energy to adequately counteract that amount of negative teaching and grooming.

It’s so much easier to believe Satan’s lie that your kids are too smart or know too much about God to be sucked into what they may hear that is counter to God’s commands. They aren’t though, and that’s why many parents are losing the battle and watching their kids walk away from God as young adults and even teens.

Don’t be the naive parent who supplies the entertainment that ultimately draws your kids away from God. You wouldn’t encourage them to do drugs and provide them with the drugs yourself. Why? Because you know all of the negative things that can happen after just one exposure – much less many. Entertainment can be just as dangerous for your kids in mental and spiritual ways. Don’t be the one who supplies them with the entertainment that draws them away from God.

Published by

Thereasa Winnett

Thereasa Winnett is the founder of Teach One Reach One and blogger at Parenting Like Hannah. She holds a BA in education from the College of William and Mary. She has served in all areas of ministry to children and teens for more than thirty years and regularly leads workshops for ministries and churches. She has conducted numerous workshops, including sessions at Points of Light’s National Conference on Volunteering and Service, the National Urban Ministry Conference, Pepperdine Bible Lectures, and Lipscomb’s Summer Celebration. Thereasa lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband Greg, where she enjoys reading, knitting, traveling and cooking.

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