Wednesday, July 24

Record Your Kids Being Excellent

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I recall being in a fast food restaurant recently when a kid was being a real nuisance. To be honest, I don't remember exactly what he was doing, but it was loud and stupid. Therefore, his parents grabbed their phones and began recording the shinanigans, and I was thinking the only thing that could be worse would be for them the share that video with the world. Of course, that's exactly what they did. To recap, instead of disciplining the kid, the parents encouraged inappropriate behavior because it made good video. That's dangerous. People wanting instant fame through their own or their kids' idiotic actions is an unfortunate side effect of America today, and it really can be dangerous, sometimes.

A local mom, who had apparently been waiting a long time for a dentist's appointment, decided to record her daughter licking a tongue depressor and put it back in the jar. The mom decided to add the following phrase in order to make more of a statement: "Don't tell me how to live my life." That was on instasnapgram, but it got bumped to the "popular Facebook page 'Only in Duval.'"

OK, now I'm worried, and not about the tongue depressors. I'm worried that we have a popular Facebook page specifically meant for people who want to prove how backwards we are in Duval. Unless it's a page normally dedicated to beautiful front lawns and people helping one another, which I doubt, I can only imagine parents and kids alike thinking up mindless video antics that might land them on the Only in Duval page of Facebook. And sharing with friends and family, proud of being recognized for being more Duuuval than someone not inclined to do whatever it is that makes their video unique to Duval. Scary, right?

What can we do? Record your kids being excellent. At least the ones that you post for the whole family. record them telling their loved ones that they love them. Record them exploring rather than destroying. Record them as they are, not as you think the world might want to see them in a trending video. Of course, those of us who don't explicitly attempt to create trending videos of our kids will likely never get 1,000,000 views on YouTube. I totally understand the allure of being a social media sensation, even for all the wrong reasons. I'd be happy to be a hack writer who creates mindless teen romance books about wizards or vampires in order to fund my desire to write great literature.

I'm hoping that we can move beyond the trend of item licking in our country. Licking something and returning it to where it was before you licked it is fairly uncivilized. It's something my football team friends used to do to each other's sandwiches at lunch in order to try to steal them from one another. We should not allow high school boy antics to be our measure of maturity.

The next time your kid shares nicely with another kid, record the heck out of the moment. If she wants to dress up like a princess or a super hero, that's cute and totally cool. If he wants to help make food in the kitchen or do a workout video with you, those are all precious moments. You won't get all the likes and views, but you and your children will have memories of being a normal family. Sure, your little one might hit daddy in the mid-section with a bat while trying to take down a pinata, and that will be funny, too. It's just sad if the only reason you're recording is to try to capture that specific moment. If you're a bored mom who needs attention, then there are probably ways for you to exploit yourself on social media rather than your kids. 

Thanks for reading. See more of my content:

Satisfamily - Articles about being happy as a family
Passive Ninja - Web Design in Jacksonville
McNewsy - Creative Writing
Educabana - Educational Resources
Brave New Church - Church Website Design
Voucher School - Pros and Cons of School Vouchers
Luthernet - Web Design for Lutheran Churches
Sitcom Life Lessons - What we've learned from sitcoms
Mancrush Fanclub - Why not?
Epic Folktale - Stories of the unknown
Wild West Allis - Every story ever told about one place
Educabana on Teachers Pay Teachers (mostly ELA lessons)
Real Wisconsin News - Satire from Wisconsin
Zoo Interchange Milwaukee - Community website
Chromebook Covers - Reviews and opinions

Brian Jaeger - Resume (I'm always interested)

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