The choice of mindful media for our children

The moment our baby is born into this world, we want to protect them; and every choice we make is made out of our parental instinct and love. We make choices how to best keep them warm, what foods we want to offer, what toys they should play with and what schools we want them to join. The choice of media has never really been made into a mindful one, but the latest generation of parents, do start realizing there is a lot of information out there - as well as misinformation. There are plenty options of content available, which supposedly are made for children - but in fact are not as child friendly as they look on the surface. YouTube is a perfect example of a channel where kids can easily get lost in child unfriendly content that looks like its made for children. Even children's movies contain violence and other 'scary' scenes that really could've easily been cropped and the movie would've still been good. For instance, in the movie 'Polar Express' there is a scene where the conductor wants to check the tickets of all children sitting in the train. When the conductor, a.k.a. Tom Hanks, notices the boy protagonist doesn't own a ticket, he wants to basically throw him off of the train. Why is the world made so scary for children? Would something like that even happen in real life? Another example was a really long scene depicting violence in the movie Peter the Rabbit. The scene was so violent, it made my daughter cry. She didn't understand why people would hit and hurt each other like that. Another episode of Lego Friends, shows a girl with stage fright. What do these movies and tv-shows really teach children? Does it not make them more violent ? And what thoughts do they produce? Do children possibly become afraid and timid? All humans, including children, have only so many hours to consume information every day. And the perception we have of the world, is based off of the information, words and media choices of that day, (or even weeks and months - if we have developed habits such as watching the news every day).

All humans, including children, have only so many hours to consume information every day. And the perception we have of the world, is based off of the information, words and media choices of that day.

Being mindful then means is having a moment where we deliberately make choices as parents that include questions as: what am I presenting my child today? What words will I use? What food will I serve and what tv-shows or books is my child allowed to consume? Choosing mindful media as a conscious parent basically means asking ourselves the question: "does this content empower my child or make my child feel smaller?"

Choosing mindful media as a conscious parent basically means asking ourselves the question: "does this content empower my child or make my child feel smaller?"

How do you feel about the media that your child is consuming? There are plenty of review sites available that rate children's movies and tv-shows, such as Common Sense Media.We still believe it is about making your decisions and knowing what's best for your kid -as every kid is so unique. However, these kind of platforms provide a stepping stone and helping hand into the jungle of content that is available nowadays.