Shows that Hurt Tummies

I believe that each person in this world is born with some sense for what good living is. Some call this a conscience, a knowledge of right and wrong, or the light of Christ. As parents, Alicia and I try to encourage our kids to listen to this sense as they come up against difficult challenges. Today our five-year-old son had an opportunity to recognize and listen to this sense and Alicia and I were proud of him for doing that.

Last week, Ethan saw a somewhat gory show about sharks attacking people. His initial reaction to this was tears as he saw the violence. Now usually, Ethan loves fighting and conflict. For a short time he wanted to be a boxer when he grows up because boxers get to "punch people in the face."Thankfully, that interest passed in a few weeks time. But seeing this video effected him negatively. It was clear that it bothered him deeply. Then the next day, he went looking for the video again on Netflix, an on-demand video streaming service we subscribe to. We saw him doing this and pulled him aside to talk to him about how some things in shows can hurt our souls and we need to be careful what we choose to watch.

Now usually after a talk like this, Ethan will hop along and promptly forget (or seem to forget) what he's been taught. Alicia and I have learned to keep our teaching very succinct so as to maximize the potential for his retention. So we weren't sure if he got the message.

But today he was watching a different show and he noticed that he didn't like the way the show was making him feel so he turned it off. The show was about animals that are a threat to people - showing various animal bites and related injuries. When he told Alicia and me what happened, he said that the show made his tummy feel bad. We interpreted this as five-year-old code for something that hurt his soul. Apperantly, some of our teaching got through to him so we reinforced that he did a good thing in listening to how that made him feel and then turning it off. Then Alicia let him have a few Oreos because, according to Ethan, it would make his tummy feel better.