We shouldn’t avoid or shun technology, that is not realistic in this technology infiltrated world. It’s about teaching our kids what is right and wrong, what is age-appropriate, and what should be avoided.
Studies show that when a young boy is first shown a nude photo or drawing of a naked woman the first thing they do is laugh, or giggle. Even if the visual they saw was a piece of art. Their under-developed minds just don’t know how to react.
A young boy’s mind is pretty erratic and muddled. Yes, I’m speaking from my own experience and from the experience of raising three sons. If you’ve raised a young boy, think of all those times you heard your son awkwardly giggle when putting in uncomfortable situations.
We all recognize that laughter is often an emotional response to an uncomfortable or confusing situation.
As parents, we need to help our kids understand why they laugh or giggle, and we need to teach them that laughter is typically thought of as the acceptance of something. So their laughter or giggle or their ‘Hilarious’ text response, can be seen by others as acceptance of something that is inappropriate.
So this is a place where parents can and should lean in and prepare their kids. After helping them understand that the laugh or giggle shows acceptance, we need to provide them with ‘what’ to say, how to react, basically to equip them with the right words on how to respond before they get into those uncomfortable moments.
After having many talks about what is age-appropriate content and what is not my young son and I brainstormed together on how he could respond when presented with something he isn’t comfortable with viewing or discussing. A few ideas we came up with are:
‘Dude, not cool.”
“Why would you share that (or show that), -pretty lame my friend.”
Basically, just verbiage he can use (fingers crossed) to help him choose his response and not be caught off guard at the moment and end up responding in ways that might show acceptance of something he really isn’t comfortable within the first place.
