Are our kids growing up too fast?

Not known for prudishness, Newsweek has an article asking this question. The article is from a book called So Sexy So Soon that confirms what we know, media images and marketing campaigns encourage youth to be "sexy ". As a father of three girls, age 14, 5 and 2, this topic is close to my parental heart.

I was reminded of this issue this past week when Stacey was telling me how difficult it is to find a bathing suit or tank top for our oldest daughter that isn't too revealing. It seems that there is a push for our kids to reveal more at earlier ages. Are these designers and retailers with an agenda or are they merely reflecting the trends and desires of the mainstream? While we could debate this one with some serious Christian zeal, the better questions are "how do we protect and teach our kids about these issues?"

After much prayer, Stacey and made the decision to send our children to public schools. And while I am told that there is just as much temptation for private schooled and home schooled children, I know that our girls will come face-to-face with values that contradict ours. Here are a couple of things that we have decided to do to help along this journey. Obviously many of these apply to our oldest, but we are establishing the same guidelines for all of our girls.

1. We are very aware of what our kids read, watch, listen to etc. This is a delicate balancing act of protecting some privacy while being aware.
2. When they go to someone else's house, to the best of our ability, we will meet the parents first.
3. Stacey is an active partipant in the shopping decisions. And yes, she enjoys this.
   
4. We leave the channels wide open. If one of our children asks about something, we will talk about it. No topic is off limits. We don't avoid it or say "we'll talk about that when you are older." This pause might let the imagination run free. We want to shape the thought before curiosity take over and want our children too know that the home is the safe place to talk about it. We work had at not reacting when we here something come out of their mouths. In the Newsweek article, they talk about asking more questions before responding. Children may say the word "sex" but they really mean "kissing". So don't boldly go where you haven't before until you know you need to.
5. We try our best in our words to reinforce that sex is a good thing- IN MARRIAGE. This reinforces that we take our cues from God and that his word says that sex is reserved for marriage. Some friends of ours who are not people of faith have already given up on the idea that there kids will not have sex before marriage and they were surprised that we thought that our kids could show restraint. I don't want to ever give up on trusting our children to choose the right path and the Holy Spirit to give them wisdom at the moment of decision.
6. We learn from other parents who have been here already.
   
7. We pray and pray and pray some more.

We are still learning, still growing in this area. Our children are too valuable and the price is to high for us to not take this seriously.

The Future of Creativity

The Utne Reader has a cover article that caught my attention called The Future of Creativity. Chapter 3 of my book Experiential Storytelling is on creativity and is probably one of the most important chapters for me because I believe that the church has lagged in this area for a long time. So I'm very interested in anything that speaks to creativity, especially where things are heading.

It's funny though, one of their first stories basically repeats what I wrote in the book- "try thinking or doing as a child would." It seems that maybe the future of creativity lies in the past. But there were some interesting finds in the magazine.

1. We are not doing a great job with fostering creativity in our children.
How?

By pawning off the task of imagination to commercial manufacturers of marketing and entertainment. 44.5 hours behind "screens" doesn't help.

And we no longer allow kids "free and unstructured play time". Because of this, the America's Promise Alliance stated "a large percentage of the children and youth who will enter the workforce ... are lacking enough of the 'soft' or applied skills- such as teamwork, decision making, and communication- that will help them be effective employees and managers."

2. Society needs better writing with larger truths but is weary of these truths.

Writing has suffered because "the smarter and more intellectual we count ourselves, the more adamantly we insist that there is no such thing as truth, no such thing as general human experience, that everything is plural and relative and therefore undiscussable." Hmmm.

3. Art + Science = Inspiration

Science and technology is affecting us in exponential ways (see wired petabyte blog). Rather than the world of art and science remaining separate, the future will bring these two worlds together to provide for a new creative frontier.


The articles were not very indepth but were provocative. I have often wondered what affect our technology will have on us. If we no longer need to struggle and think for ourselves, will this lead to a less creative culture?

And will our "culture of fear" also curb the creative process? We want to protect and cocoon ourselves when we sense danger, but does this lead us to more homogenous group-think?

How have these changes in culture also affected the church? It seems that there has been a creativity rennaissance within many churches, but is it only in the hands of those delivering the message? Are the people sitting in the services using their God-given creativity in their own missional environments? Or are they simply "pawning off the task of imagination to commercial manufacturers of marketing and entertainment?"

Thoughts?