I often see posts about curating your own online experience that make the point, ācontent creators arenāt your parents.ā And, yes, that is absolutely true! And I try not to be like āas a parent,ā but as a parentā¦
EVEN PARENTS ARE SUPPOSED TO ENCOURAGE RESPONSIBLE READING/VIEWING BEHAVIOR. NOT filter everything ahead of time for their kid.
When my kiddo was 5, his pediatrician was asking him the usual Well Child Visit questions (āWhat are your favorite foods? What do you do to get your body moving? Do you know what to do if you get lost in a public place?ā Etc.) and she asked, āWhat do you do if you see something on TV that scares or upsets you?ā
I piped up like, āOh, he doesnāt watch TV without one of us in the room,ā which was true at the time and is still largely true now. She said, āYes, but that wonāt always be the case, so make sure youāre talking to him about what to do if he sees something that upsets him.ā
So we started talking to him about that, and the answer is simple: āTurn it off or leave the room, and talk to someone you trust about what you saw and what youāre feeling.ā
The answer is NOT āAsk your parents to make sure you never see anything upsetting again,ā because thatās just not possible ā and ultimately that would be doing the kid a disservice, since sooner or later heās going to be out in the world where we canāt control what he watches or reads. That doesnāt mean we donāt try to make sure heās watching/reading age-appropriate stuff, it just means thatās not the only safeguard he has ā and thatās a good thing.
So yes, content creators arenāt your parents and arenāt responsible for making sure you never see anything you donāt like ā but also, your own parents should have taught you what to do when that happens. So if they didnāt, take it from me, your internet mom:
Talk to someone you trust about how youāre feeling.
And leave the person who created the thing that upset you alone.
gracieabrams
amandla
