As you sow shall you reap...

We have all grown up watching the Tom and Jerry cartoons. They are a part of our childhood memories and somehow I rather enjoy watching them again to refresh those memories and laugh for a while. My daughter also likes Tom and Jerry as much as I do but I'm beginning to view the cartoons in a different light ever since I became a parent. The cartoon makes us laugh on the different escapades of Jerry who manages to outwit Tom every time - save for a couple of times that Tom triumphs. In the process Tom usually gets beaten, bamboozled, and sometimes even broken to bits! The laughter value is pretty good but when you think about it, it actually means that it's okay to laugh at a person who is being hit for no obvious fault of his own and fighting is the only means of settling a score. This is against the norms that we wish to impart to our children but given that they watch such cartoons everyday, I'm sure it will stay somewhere in their heads. In a similar vein is another cartoon called Oggy and the Cockroaches. It is about a cat named Oggy being harassed by a trio of cockroaches and quite frankly that cartoon is more towards the disgusting side of entertainment - filled with acts that violate the basic etiquette that we teach our children. And the list of cartoons with objectionable content goes on and on....


I am a mother guilty of using the television as a nanny when needed but recently I have started cutting down the amount of time my daughter spends in front of the tube. I have watched most of the cartoons myself to ensure that they do not contain anything that is either alien to our culture or is sure to plant crazy ideas in my child's head. It is a difficult job to explain to a little girl why she can't watch the cartoons that make her laugh the most but I am trying to draw a line somewhere. I know a person who does not allow kids to watch television entirely but even that deprivation is not healthy for kids living in today's modern society. A kid cannot comprehend why everyone else can do a certain thing and he/she can't. I have always talked about the influence of media in our lives and now I worry about what it could do to our kids! The shows aired on kids channels are also devoid of any real positive purpose and portray the most vile characters as being the most popular. The subject matter of the different shows is rather artificial and promotes useless concepts that should not be the objectives of young minds, like: chasing after girls/boys via different tactics, using money and looks rather than brains to gain attention and above all giving cheeky answers to adults to show assertiveness. Sometimes I talk to my daughter about what she just saw on television and explain to her that the act was bad and the person doing it was being nasty. Thankfully she responds well and next time points out the same act and says she will not do it because it was not nice. It is a start to discovering the good and bad side of things.

A young and open mind will absorb whatever is coming at it, which is why not just television but also the home environment are key factors in deciding its orientation. A household, where everybody has the habit of shouting at each other and misbehaving, is sure to produce children who are prone to bad behavior. Not everything can be taught to kids, because they have a very keen observation and watch our every move with diligence and ultimately copy it. The wise old saying that children are merely a reflection of their parents is true 100%. Their shining eyes look up to us as a role model and it is not their fault that they feel good about behaving like their mom and dad. We are the ones around them since the day they were born and they dote on us! Life does change when you have children because at first you only think about yourself but now you have to think about the latest additions to the family, who are capable of leading you to Heaven or Hell. Allah does cater to the needs of every child that is born but He has left it up to the parents on how they raise that child. And it is scientifically proven that till the age of ten, a child's personality is developing and parents play a crucial role in shaping that persona. As parents, we have to try our best that our children are a worthy reflection of all the good that lies inside us. Because as you sow, shall you reap....