Commentary: Time to parent in real life and shut up on social media
Recent current events are proving to be too much — mentally, emotionally, physically. Los Angeles (aka: the place where so many of my professional and personal dreams came true on television and in real life) is burning and pretty much gone. Yes, GONE — lives, businesses, our collective spirit.
Many are protesting the death of George Floyd peacefully. Many are stealing, looting, vandalizing, setting street fires, blocking fire trucks so firefighters cannot extinguish fires, throwing water bottles filled with cement at law enforcement and holding signs that say “F--- the police.” Many are angry, hurt and downright confused why criminals causing anarchy are not apprehended or threatened with detainment and/or fines from local and state leaders like the rest of us were for not wearing a mask and questioning curiously extended “safer at home” orders in the name of COVID-19 (despite data that proved the disease was not as life-threatening-to-all as previously thought).
All are fighting one way or another — face to face and on social media. As a public “media/opinion personality” I share thoughts, articles and/or videos that I find fascinating — media that challenge us to analyze past a mainstream narrative. As a mom, I am utterly depleted and infuriated by all of it — Facebook, Twitter and Instagram shamefully riles me up. (You too?) The media part of me deeply values freedom of speech and conversation. The private citizen part of me wishes everyone would just shut up. (Don’t tell my kids I said that. Saying “shut up” is still a serious offense in our house.)
How novel it would it be if we all just stopped yelling at each other and tended to our own kids, our own homes, our own families, our own friends, our own health and our own jobs (what’s left of them, anyway) — like the old-fashioned days. What would happen if we opted to not attack, berate, falsely accuse and/or put words in someone else’s mouth because we didn’t agree with them (assuming that what they communicated was not a direct threat to community/personal safety). What if we all took a big break from going online — for just a day — and actually spent quality time teaching our kids values, morals, how to treat others and how to think as individuals through our actions. Because much of online vitriol fueling this tragedy we’re in is coming from parents who should frankly be grounded.
The big slogan for raising children these days is “Be Kind” -- a philosophy I believe in and live by (despite some of the harassment I’ve personally received from sharing some of my current views). From what I’ve experienced online (from fellow parents), there’s a heck of a lot of “Do as I say, not as I do.” (From all sides, mind you. This piece here is admittedly not my “kindest.”) The same parents who claim to be outraged by hate are seemingly first to pounce and puncture a stranger (or a friend) should that person have an opposing point of view. I wonder how some kids and teens would react if they were to discover how disrespectful their parents’ manners truly are? Perhaps these are the kind of parents who raise looters, criminals and/or protesters who throw injurious Molotov cocktails into crowds during “non-violent demonstrations.”
Attend a peaceful protest and share pictures and videos if it moves you? Yes! Share an alternative point of view if it strikes you as mind-blowing? Yes! Attack a stranger’s or friend’s personal character because they do not see the world in the same way you see it or did not say something the same way you would say it? No social media for you for the next 2 weeks!
Because if we don’t grow up now — with our own actions, words and online stabbings — our kids’ future is doomed at the sole fault of bad parents. (Some would say it already is.) Kids are watching. Reading. Listening. Learning. And they’re onto us. Be the change already.