Safe Eyes

My oldest son, who is 10, casually shared with my wife & I that his friend is looking at porn on his computer. He said, “Jack told me that he pretends to be asleep when his parents come to his room to tuck him in at night. After they leave he turns on his computer and looks at porn.”

I am amazed every time I hear an example like my son shared of parents who are either unconcerned or unaware as to the various influences competing for residence in their children’s minds.

Americans aged 13 to 18 spend more than 72 hours a week using electronic media—defined as the Internet, cell phones, television, music and video games.
87% of all teens are online.
1 in 7 youths received sexual solicitation online.
Average age of first Internet exposure to pornography is 11 years old.
15-17 year olds having multiple hard-core exposures - 80%
8-16 year olds having viewed porn online - 90% (most while doing homework).
7-17 year olds who would freely give out home address - 29%
7-17 year olds who would freely give out email address - 14%
Children's character names linked to thousands of porn links 26 (Including Pokemon and Action Man).

Source www.xxxchurch.com

I am thankful that our kids can openly speak to us about issues, such as pornography, without shame or concern of getting into trouble. This openness is the result of my wife & I intentionally taking some simple, common sense steps to both protect our family & explain what the protection is about as it pertains to the internet.

The three steps we employ as a family are very basic:

1. We keep our computer in a high traffic area of our home (kitchen/sitting room)
- If our kids run into trouble we are always around to help
- There are no computers in any of the bedrooms, tucked away in any remote part of the house or behind closed doors

2. We use Internet Filtering software called www.safeeyes.com
- It helps our family avoid unsolicited porn traffic
- It protects our family from ending up on sites (whether on purpose or not) that are harmful to their healthy development

3. We have rules for appropriate Internet usage
- Boundaries are helpful especially at the outset and while a family is young so that habits are formed and this becomes the way we relate to the internet as a family
- There are a lot of helpful uses for the internet but even too much of a good thing ceases to be a good thing before too long

Allen Pond outing

Maple Shaved Ice

I took the kids to Millarville Market yesterday while Leslie had a morning out with the girls.

Maple syrup over shaved ice - delish!

Puberty

So.. I'm sitting in the living room with Joel (my eight year old) where out of the corner of my eye I see him looking at his frozen yogurt popsicle. Joel says to me, "I think this popsicle is going through puberty." I said, "Why?" Joel replies, "Because it has a hair on it."

I laughed hysterically - he didn't see why it was so funny!

Full of life

I know I've said it before yet I'll say it again, life is full, good & full.

- Joel was selected to take part in a hockey school in July at no cost to us! It's a Calgary Flames camp & he'll be spending a couple of hours at the Saddledome on tour of the Flames dressing room, etc. He's pretty stoked as are we for him!

- Julia lost her two front baby teeth. I'm watching her grow up before my very eyes and it both excites me and scares the heck out of me. In some ways I want her to continue to be my little girl forever.

- Jake & I have had some great talks as of late. These are cherished moments. One night he was asking me about drugs because a kid on his soccer team (while they were both on the sidelines together) asked him if he knew what getting high meant. Another time, during a drive we were taking together, he was telling me how left out he sometimes feels because kids have seen movies that he hasn't. Austin Powers was the movie in question and he wanted to know why he hasn't seen it yet.

Parenting is such a huge responsibility. I love it and don't love it (hate is too strong a word to use coz I wouldn't take it that far). It's not about my kids - I love them, there is no question. I'm more concerned with messing up and messing them up. I'm concerned with them rebelling against me and not wanting to speak to me when they get older. I'm concerned with them leaving our family to begin their own and not needing me anymore.

God has given them to us in trust for a time. That's hard. I know it and I will deal with letting go when that time comes. For now, every moment is precious as I get to be a part of their growing up.

My Girl

Julia lost her two front teeth this week - one on Wednesday & one yesterday (Friday).

My little beauty is growing up!

I love my boys!

Jake was telling me about his prayer a couple of nights ago and how he was praying for a family in our community who was going through a tough time as the result of a hit & run DUI that killed a woman. He went on to say that he prayed for the Penguins (his team) to beat the Flyers (my team).

I said, "Jake, do you think God cares about hockey & who wins the cup?"
He said, "No, but I know He cares about me & I care about hockey & who wins the cup."

Geez, I wish I had the faith insight & God capacity that I once had as a kid.

*** *** *** *** ***

Joel & I were heading into the Y to volunteer tonight when he saw a couple of high school kids dressed in football gear heading to or from a game/practice.

Joel said, "When I grow up I'm going to either be a football player, hockey player or a coal miner."
I said, "Joel, do people still coal mine?"
He said, "Oh yeah! They make like one thousand seven hundred dollars a year!

I'm not sure which book & from which era he had taken his research but to him it seems like a good paying job!

What's important?

Sylvan's Request

"Will you color with me?" asked Sylvan.

"Not right now, I'm going to go do..."

something important.

I went to do something I needed to do, didn't I?

Oh no.

What a glorious invitation I passed on today.

I could have colored!

I never color anymore.

I saw I wasn't good at coloring, so I stopped.

Growing up is dangerous like that.

It's so easy to forget that playing isn't competing,

so easy to confuse the serious with the important

or the skillful with the valuable.

Sylvan wanted to color while Leo played in a cardboard box

and Violette carefully balanced a pillow on her head.

How silly they are.

How wonderfully, worshipfully, beautifully silly!

But me?

Well, I had to do something important.

~Nathan Bubna

I almost passed on an opportunity to play ping pong with a kid while volunteering on Monday night. I had already played ping pong with this kid and he left the family center for what I thought was the night. I picked up a book and started reading and then he showed up again about fifteen minutes later wanted to play again. I said, "I'm going to read for a bit." Then I took a look across the room at the kid having to sit there and watch the kids on the ddr. I felt bad and decided to take him up on the game. I kicked his butt!

Kids are worth putting time into. Sometimes we may think we have better things to do. More often than not that may even be true. But when we consider the privilege of being invited while they are still interested in playing with us...that's priceless.

George, George, George of the...

I was driving with my three kids on Tuesday when Jake asked what the 21st century meant. We began a discussion about century being 100 years and that it's been over 2000 years since Jesus was born. From there I tried to explain a little about BCE & CE (maybe a bit much for the kids to take in).

The conversation went from era to death. The kids began to ask me about Bible people and if they were dead or not. We got into a discussion about OT & NT.

From the back Joel chimes in and asks, "Is that guy George the baptizer still alive?"

Good times!