My precious, innocent boys
Lately, I have really started to enjoy watching kids’ cooking and baking shows. I am amazed beyond measure what these young chefs, as young as 8-years-old, can do. It is a true testament to being able to do anything you set your mind to and work hard to achieve.
The best part about it, though, is watching these kids just being kids. You never know what is going happen or what they’ll do or say next. It especially is entertaining to me when they have absolutely no problem at all speaking their minds to chefs like Gordon Ramsay, a chef I can’t handle watching for more than a few minutes, because it stresses me out, unless it’s on MasterChef and MasterChef, Jr. where his language and anger are kept under control.
Kids are amazing. I have watched so many hard people watch a child and see even their veneers crack. I’ve heard so many comments about how cute kids are, how they are so funny and that you never know what’s going to come out of their mouths. But the thing I have heard the most is how innocent they are. This is always said in an endearing way. It is a thought that seems almost reverently held about children and like those making the statement long to have it as well.
But then I look at adults now and how the world seems to applaud and look up to those who live for and seek out anything and everything sexual, can speak barely a sentence without swearing and will do anything to get ahead no matter who it hurts. I don’t know how many Disney shows I have watched with my children where the sweet kids on the show get older and their main objective is to “break the sweet and innocent Disney reputation” they have. They want to show that they’re adults now and they set out to show this by doing everything to be anything but sweet.
But what are they really trying to achieve by making this stand? They are trying to belong in the adult world where they will be accepted with as little kickback as possible. To choose to go against the norm is to put yourself in the position to be under the scrutiny of others and be attacked. Or, worse yet, in so many people’s eyes, to not be noticed much at all.
In all honesty, though, there is so much emptiness in this pursuit. What is there to gain by losing so much that makes you uniquely you to be like everyone else in the world? I know that we can’t stay naïve forever and we have to grow up and live in the adult world, but why can’t we keep our innocence? Why is that such a bad thing? Clearly, it is something many wistfully remember when they see it in a child. So, why is it seen as so wrong?
~ Joanna Lynn
Justin Beiber is another one. I put on his video for one of my students last week and had to stop it because of all the sexuality and nudity in it. I don’t shock easily but really….Justin Beiber?
Yeah, it is so sad. I just read a story about him saying he was sorry for the choices he’d made and not being a good role model for kids. Then immediately saw something he was doing right then that I wouldn’t have let my kids watch.
I thought the idea was to say sorry too but his videos are not for kids!
Yeah, I think he’s a very confused young man. I’m not sure he even knows what he wants or needs to do.