http://jesusfreakrkg.blogspot.com/2007/01/when-disney-channel-is-no-longer-for.html
I love the Disney channel. I mean it; I really, really love the Disney channel. If I could watch The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Hannah Montana every time I turned on the TV, I think I would.
That said, I’m nineteen. I am old enough to see R- rated movies, vote, and join the army- among other things. I feel like I am old enough to watch the Disney channel with a critical mind and not be adversely affected by it.
I do not feel the same way in regards to children watching it.
My little sister will be twelve in December and my brother is nine. In my opinion, they absolutely should not be watching the Disney channel. These shows are absolutely inappropriate for them. The content is absurd: rebelling against parents, failing classes, demands for perfect fashion, celebration of bad grades, and relentless girl chasing can all be found in a half hour of any one of the Disney channel shows. What message do I want to send to my younger siblings? The answer is definitely not the one that the Disney channel is sending.
Maybe I sound like an old concerned parent. I am not a parent, and I know nothing about raising kids. All in all, I just want do be the best sister that I can be. Regardless, I know that there are a lot of parents out there that agree with me. The three attached blogs are from parents that have similar concerns to mine. Of course, in my opinion, their concerns are completely valid. The difference is that I don’t know what to do about it. I want to be a fun sister that allows my siblings to do what they want to (within reason), I don’t want to be a lame sister that always says no.
I need help.
At the end of the day, I am in a dilemma. I don’t really have the heart to tell either of my siblings that they can’t watch these shows. I know what it is like to be the unpopular kid in school; I know that it is a social necessity to know what’s happening on television. Its silly, but so are kids.
Maybe it makes me a hypocrite. I don’t feel that Disney has a very good influence on children anymore, but nevertheless I took my little sister to see High School Musical 3: Senior Year on the first day. I mean I had to. She had to. Is that wrong? Her friends were there, it’s popular! It’s just a little hard for me because I don’t feel that the message is appropriate for her.
My parents do let them watch the Disney channel, but they don’t always pay the kind of attention to it that I feel that they should. Here’s just one example. One day I was sitting at home watching MTV. My family came home and I changed the channel to Disney because everyone knows that MTV is inappropriate for children. The funny thing is that my dad quickly asked me to change the channel because “Zack and Cody” had just done something that he found inappropriate. I explained to him that I was watching the Disney channel- he couldn’t believe it.
I want to be a good sister, but sometimes that’s harder than it sounds.
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