A Family Battle to win back your children

What is happening to our children today? The media influence has become the guiding force for our children. Are the parents losing the control over their own children? Do you all agree that the media force is slowly taking over our children?

Sex, foul language, violence, homosexuality, rapes and drugs, to mention some of the few, are considered as a normal way of life as pictured in the media today. These are what our children are exposed to.

Fortunately, all is not lost. There are ways where the parents can still be the main force to mould their children to have a family with good values.

Most importantly, love your children.

It is not enough just to tell them that you love them. Show your love to them, express your feelings to them.

Show a genuine interest in your children.

This does not mean that you have to shower them with money or expensive goods. These are only of material value which eventually fades. They need something more genuine, they need you.

Communicate with your children.

Giving endless instructions or nagging at them is not communication. Engage in good conversation with them. Talk to them, listen to what they have to say. Have a pleasant and happy union with them. Make them enjoy your company.

Add humor to your family's life.

Parents, generally tend to be serious with their children. Shed off this serious outlook. Try to have a perpetual smile on your face. In this way, when you talk to your children, they in turn will see a nice pleasant face and this will light their faces in return. A beautiful smile can be contagious. Laugh with them, joke with them. This will be like a magic wand that will fill the home with happiness.

Be directly involved in your children's lives.

Know your children, their likes, their dislikes. Know their friends whom they mix with. This will give you some assurance when they are out with their friends. Monitor their school progress. Once you win their hearts, they will always turn to you to solve any of their personal problems.

Monitor your children's media.

This is very important because it is the media that you are fighting with. The media, on the other hand, is also moulding your children their way.

Monitor your children on what type of programs they watch on TV. There is a lot of sex and violence in our TV programs and this can influence them. They may look at it as a norm of today.

See what they surf on the internet. The internet today has a lot of good information as well as bad. It is always a good practice to have your computers in the living room where the computer screen is visible to all.

Again, care needs to be taken as to how you control the media. Do not set rigid rules as to make the home environment to become serious and gloomy. You need to give them some space, yes everyone needs his own space. Some tolerance also needs to be practiced.