You’re tired. You’re sick. You are barely capable of lifting your own head, there is no way that you can care for and keep a child occupied. So you do what you swore you wouldn’t do again…you call up the babysitter.
You swore her off months ago. Mostly because of her unpredictability. One minute she’ll be fun, entertaining, and even a tad educational. The next minute she curses like a sailor. You’ve got no control over what comes out of her mouth.
This isn’t to mention that her dress is far from modest. At times it isn’t so bad. At other times she greets your children in a bikini. And you just know you’ve overheard her talking about her husband’s erectile dysfunction.
You know all of this is only a tip of the iceberg. If your kids were in the wrong place at the wrong time you are afraid of what they would see from this babysitter. You’ve heard she’s got sex tapes being passed all around town and she isn’t even ashamed of it.
And we haven’t even talked about her worldview. Even in her better moments you know that she is subtly worming her way into your child’s little brain. She doesn’t even have to curse, or wear a bikini, or talk about ED to be dangerous. Her way of thinking is opposed to the gospel and it can’t help but influence your kiddos.
But you are tired.
You are desperate.
You’ve got no other option.
And so you turn on the television…
Even the Better Babysitter Likely Still Needs Fired
That of course is the worse case scenario. Hopefully this shows why it is deadly to give your children unprotected access to television, the internet, game systems, YouTube, etc.
Some have already fired that babysitter and they’ll never turn back. They’ve got everything protected. No way junior is going to be able to access porn. No way Cinemax will ever appear on our televisions.
But I’m wondering if even the good babysitters—like Super Why and Veggie Tales and some of these other educational shows—aren’t also dangerous as heavily employed babysitters.
I’ll admit. I’ve done it. I’ve been exhausted or sick or just plain lazy in parenting, and I’ve plopped them in front of a screen to entertain them. I’ve let my son play Mario for way too long and my daughter to watch her favorite Playdoh videos.
I’ve told myself that its harmless entertainment. But maybe it isn’t so harmless. At least I’m filtering what they watch and play. But what if Archibald Hart is right and we are being Thrilled to Death? In his book he argues that “consistent overuse of the brain’s pleasure circuits causes us to lose our capacity to experience pleasure”.
So maybe Mario isn’t a very good babysitter after all.
It’s time to fire the babysitter…
