I am always amazed at what I see and hear on TV these days--words that if we uttered as kids, my mom would use soap on our mouths are commonplace on television; Victoria's Secret models dance in scantily clad undergarments with lustful looks on their faces; and you can always count on a good beer commercial at 7:00am when watching ESPN SportsCenter! Usually, the words and the commercials with the women happen later in the evening; but this past Sunday, at 3:15pm--right in the middle of the afternoon--I was shocked to see a commercial appear on the Oxygen channel advertising the new show, "Dance Your ASS Off". And, the announcer of the show says the name in such a way as to emphasize the word "ass".
Maybe I'm just a mom of two boys, ages 13 & 11, and I'm more aware of what they are seeing and hearing. I know for a fact that when they think I am not around (i.e., they are completely focused on their XBox Live game) that they do say some colorful words, on occasion, which they wouldn't say in front of me. These tend to be phrases like "that s*cks" or "oh sh*t!". Nothing too horrible--but nonetheless, they wouldn't want me thinking they talked like that. Out of the house, I'm not that out of touch to think they haven't heard or said worse, but the mom in me would like to think that generally, they stay within the "simple" swear words.
Having them see--and knowing there are probably much younger kids who could be walking by a TV or in the same room as a TV--that could be playing this very same commercial for "Dance Your ASS Off" offends me. Call me a Prude, but it does. I know it is considered "cable"--even though I have DirecTV--but still.
I had this same concern with the Quiznos commercial and the new sub sandwich they were publicizing--I can't even remember the name or type of the sandwich it was--all I can remember is it was toasted and the oven kept talking seductively to the sandwich maker, who was a guy, and the oven kept saying, "put it in me". After sending DirecTV and Quiznos corporate complaint emails--and I know I couldn't have been the only one, I am not that powerful--those ads have been changed, and the seductive words are only used after 9:00pm.
Am I getting old? Am I out of touch? Is this just the way things are these days? How do I work with this, raising two teen boys who are just entering puberty and have all sorts of things going on in their bodies--let alone the external environment and distractions they also deal with at their age. Is this society's way of letting them know it is appropriate in everyday language to say, "I'm going to go work my ass off at the gym"...which is where my older son was going one afternoon before I corrected him and explained how this is NOT the way we explain things.
I know parenting starts at home...why does society try to throw so many roadblocks at us...and why do we allow it?
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