I read something that stopped me in my tracks on Friday. A guest post written by Gregg Murset, who is the Founder of www.myjobchart.com, which we love! And, as the father of 4 boys and 2 girls, you can tell he writes from his heart. It’s called: The Demise of Guys and it’s shared over at We Are That Family. {great blog, one of the first I started following!}
I HAD to pass it on to you! Here is the photo from it:
WOAH. Now that I have your attention….go read that guest post!
~T
4 little Fergusons 
Oh Tonya, Thank you, Thank you!!!! Wow! You don’t really know all that till someone stops and figures it out! I am so glad that we are keeping the video games out of our house! I see my two nephews ( 7 and 5)who can already play and BEAT men in Call of Duty! 🙂 Hubby and my hearts break for them. My bro and sis-in-law just don’t see that it is bad and think we are crazy for not letting our kids play! I don’t want them learning how to kill! Even if it is just a game! Why do you think that there are so many shooting now a days!? This just proves what hubby and I have been talking about.
But, I do have to say, my hubby did not have t.v. OR video games at all growing up and he still has had trouble. But, It all comes back to the fact that his father never sat down and talk and answered the ?? that he and his brothers had! They were always told don’t look at the Victoria Secret store when you walk by! But he always say to me… they never told us WHY! They never sat them down and told them that boy AND men have these feelings and such but you need to keep those for your wife some day. My hubby just wanted his dad to say… yeah I have had those feeling too but this is how I delt with them. We SO want to be differnent with our son. We want him to feel like he can come to us(Esp. his Dad) and ask and us not feel like it is a dirty subject to talk about. It is so sad to see so many bys/men going down this path! My heart just breaks knowing that it all ould be different! More Dad’s need to read this! I am going to share this with hubby! He need to know that there are other men out there that think like him and don’t want there sons to take the same path!
I am sorry for a long comment like this! But, I just think that people need to know that even if you don’t have all the technology in your life you can still be in trouble! Dads need to be open and honest with there sons and listen to their problems. Cuz not doing that can lead them down a dark road trying to figure life out on there own!
Love and hugs to you dear friend,
Kristina<3
Explaining the Why’s of it all and heading to God’s word to back those “why’s” are VERY important! Great comment…..
Yes, I totally agree that we need to lead them to the LORD in all this. God needs to be 100% a part of our lives and conv. with our children! That is what hubby so badly wanted! Thanks for sharing this!
Kristina, you hit the nail on the head with the “why” response. While my husband is great at teaching our boys about the whys of most things, he does not feel comfortable with addressing their whys when it comes to sexual things. He was raised in a home where sex was never discussed. When he turned thirteen, his mom gave him a book about sex and told him if he had any questions to ask his dad (an alcoholic so not really accessible). I am always talking to them about being open in all areas. They come to me with questions even in front of their dad. He doesn’t feel comfortable talking about it around them. His usual response is that he never talked like that with his mom. I am going to show him your response so he can see how important it is for fathers to answer the whys of sex for boys.
Kiki,
It is so sad that the subject of sex it such a hard topic for us all to talk about. I mean it is something that GOD created to be good! This world has turned it into something that is dirty and not something you talk about.
Just keep praying for your husband! It is what we as wives can do for them to help them to be able to tackles these hard subjects!!!! We need to be praying HARD for this next generation of kids that they are strong and BOLD! And we as parents need to be training them up for that! So glad that you are wanting to do so!:)
WOW! I know I have heard this but to see it visually! really just over 200 hours for a language and guitar! amazing. I am sharing this with my nephews…they are old enough to take this to heart…time to plant a few seeds.
After reading your article yesterday and today, Tonya, I wanted to share a different perspective. We have different perspectives on video games… I do not have children yet, so perhaps I can’t understand your perspective fully. I agree that excessive [video game] playtime is a bad thing, with “excessive” being the key word. However, it makes me kind of sad to see so many people trying to blame video games for their problems (not targeting you, but I mean in a general sense.)
Consider my story… Many young children draw, and they draw often. But I took a serious interest in illustration at 12-13 years old, the main factor being that I read Nintendo Power (a video game magazine) and dreamed of having my art published in the Readers’ Art article. With only brothers, I grew up playing video games quite often, and I grew up alongside the evolution of video game systems. (I still read all the time and did sports, too.) I know that God has used video games as a hobby in my life to inspire me to pursue illustration, and I was accepted into an art college. It might sound strange, but God even used something like video games as a way for me to meet my husband!
Some video games are truly works of art, and can encourage creativity and interests in musical diversity and teach good moral lessons. I think it is the desire for excess in our culture and the degradation of common morality that has gripped many video games, movies, and even books today that is the problem. We live in a fallen, broken world, and the Lord instructs us in His Word to use discernment when we look at the things around us. There are unhealthy books and movies as well as unhealthy video games. The important thing is the moral quality of what we choose to tap into and not to be doing these things in excess.
I apologize for such a long post, and I want to clarify that I’m not trying to argue with you or debate. In fact, I don’t like either of those things! And what your husband and you choose for your family is completely your thing. I just wanted to share a different perspective on this subject, and a short blurb from my life about it. Thanks. (:
Love this comment, Kairi!! Yes, I agree, we have to filter EVERYTHING that come into our homes, books, games, computer games and video games too. Because we personally are limiting media at our house, video games are an easy one to skip. However, I know as they get older and have different interests, this will have to be readdressed. What will NOT change, is the “filter” system…which means limiting the kinds of games that are acceptable.
Thanks for this, I love open and POLITE discussion! Not everyone can manage to agree to disagree in such a lovely way. LOL 🙂
HUGS, T
That was very interesting and I will continue to share this with friends and family!