Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Everything I know on parenting, I learned from Bill Cosby


A couple weeks ago we cancelled our cable at home.  We decided that we could live watching shows on Hulu, Netflix, etc. and cut a ton of our costs.  One of the shows that our kids have been watching through each and every episode of every season is The Cosby Show.  I remember when this show was first on and watching it with my parents.  I’ve constantly referenced it since then when I’ve been raising the kids, and so they wanted to watch the episodes. 

Well, almost every episode one of my kids will turn to me and say that I’ve either said or done the same thing that they just watched on TV.  It cracks me up as they are so right…I really did take a lot more away from that show than I ever thought.  I often treat my kids the same way, and I can’t really say that my doing that is bad at all.  The funniest part is that the kids are noticing me doing the same things.

This fact does have me thinking about the other shows that people watch and how much they could be emulating them as well.  Would I be happy if my kids saw me doing things from The Simpsons?  How about Married with Children?  It’s very true that the things that we put into our heads is the same stuff that comes out.  My parenting style has been shaped from my parents, along with stuff I’ve seen on TV from The Cosby Show, Home Improvement, etc.  Yet, most of all it’s been shaped by God through my reading from the Bible and doing many different parenting studies.  I’ve spent time with other people going through the same things that I am going through and have gained from their experiences to figure out how to handle situations. 

Today the thought I want to leave you with is just to examine the things that have influence on your life.  Be it parenting, marriage, money, etc., the information that comes into your life are the same things that will show to others.  We all spend years gathering information and eventually most of that is going to come out one way or another.  I’d like to encourage you to look for positive influences in people, from media, etc.  Those positive influences just might be seen by others some day, and like my family and The Cosby Show, I’m sure you’d rather it be positive than negative.

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