Читать книгу Don't Let the Culture Raise Your Kids - Marcia Segelstein - Страница 8

Introduction

Writing this book from the perspective of a journalist, I’ve drawn on the lessons learned in covering family-related issues, first as a television news producer, and then as a writer. But there’s no question that my work — and this book — have been influenced by having children of my own and experiencing the challenges of raising them in our current culture.

Despite believing that I was vigilant as a mother, I was taken by surprise many times by what my children experienced, what they were exposed to, and even what they were explicitly taught in school. I wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of cultural messages that were directly opposed to the Christian beliefs, morals, and values I was trying to instill.

With that said, this book is not a guide to “how to raise your children like I did.” I have made far too many mistakes for that! This book is about what I learned after digging into issues that took on added importance because I was a mother — it’s the book I wish I was given when I became a mom.

I first started covering family issues as a producer for CBS This Morning. The “Family Time” segment I produced reported on issues including divorce and its impact on children, childcare, early childhood education, family health, adolescence, work/family balance, the importance of fathers, aging — almost anything relating to families and kids.

After my daughter was born and I left CBS News to be a full-time mother, I began to write from home on those same issues, eventually becoming a senior editor for Salvo magazine and writing for the National Catholic Register. The topics I’ve covered range from the impact of pornography on children and teens, to the work of Dr. Miriam Grossman on the untruths of contemporary sex education in public schools, to the enormous influence on kids of both the culture and their peers, thanks to social media — to name a few.

Everything I’ve learned through my research and writing has provided the impetus for this book. I want to share what I’ve learned about the outsized influence the culture has on raising our kids, and what Christian parents can do to take back their families.

When I was growing up, the culture might not have been explicitly Christian, but it didn’t actively work against Christian morality and values, either. Today it does. If Christian parents want to stop this trend — especially before it gets worse — they need to think and act differently. Unfortunately, modern parents are often ill-equipped to do this because it isn’t only children who are negatively influenced by the culture: parents are, too. It’s easy to feel alone and insecure when you’re the only parent setting limits on screen time, or refusing to buy the latest tech gadget, or pulling your child out of sex ed class. It’s easy to feel like the “bad guy” when other parents are acting like their children’s friends.

For both parents and children, the cultural onslaughts are pervasive. Educators take it upon themselves to school students in culturally correct notions of gender, sex, and marriage. The click of a mouse or the touch of a smartphone can expose children to obscene pornographic images. The entertainment and advertising industries seem hell-bent on destroying childhood innocence and ramping up a propensity for materialism, to say nothing of promiscuity. With the pervasiveness of technology and social media, peers often replace parents as the primary influence in a child’s life.

Our goal as Christian parents is to guide our children toward heaven. That’s not where they’ll be directed if we let the culture raise our kids.

This book will show you how to be the parents your children need. You’ll learn how to lead your children with confidence and authority. You’ll discover where the pitfalls lie and just how dangerous the world can be for kids. But more importantly, you’ll acquire the skills needed to protect them from the many dangerous lies-disguised-as-truth that can lure them away from you, and away from the Faith.