Children are so impressionable. It doesn’t take much appeal to get them on board for a project. Last year, I had my fill of fundraisings. Some I didn’t mind; however, when they started coming home begging me to give them a dollar to wear a hat for Diabetes or Cancer or some other fundraiser, I hit the limit of my endurance. I was sick of my little guys’ hearts being manipulated for money.
Let me give another example. If my husband and I were divorced (which we aren’t), and I asked my children to ask their dad for the child-support payment, I would be taken to task by the government’s Child Services. I would be chasitised for manipulating my children to achieve an ends.
Which is what I think some of those school fund-raisers do–or rather that is how they go about soliciting funds–by preying on the tractable hearts and minds of my children.
Children are so responsive to cries for help. They do not see the “man behind the curtain” as in The Wizard of Oz. They do not doubt that the person asking them for help has ulterior motives. They are like little birds in the nest, happily opening their mouths to swallow the food their mother bird, or others that the mother bird trusts, drops down their gullets.
Based on this reasoning, I do not want my little guys listening to Tuesdays speech, beamed into my children’s classrooms, without parental guidance. How many of those children will think the president is directly talking to their classroom or their school. Imagine! The president needs their help! “Gee, Mom, President Obama says I can help him. He wants me on his side. Wow-I need 3 ways to help him. My teacher helped me come up with a plan.”
My malleable, trusting sons will come home telling me we need to help the President of the United States implement his socialist agend. Then Iwill be the bad guy because I do not believe in his plans.
My high school students are different. We have discussed politics, our beliefs, and history. I am a firm believer that you need at leat 3 reasons to believe what you believe. You just cannot believe because your mama or daddy does. Understanding why you stand for something is critically important.
Faithful did his sophomore paper on the difference between capitalism and socialism. Most of the students in his class seemed to think that socialism was the way to go. “Everybody should get equal pay,” they said. “After all, not everyone gets the same opportunities.” My son responded, “Well, do you want the garbage man doing brain surgery on you? ”
Marx’s ideological theory, “From everyone according to his ability to everyone according to his need” is the foundation of exploitation and reducation of freedom. There is no American Dream in socialism.
Our forefathers fought to keep the government out of our life, our religion, our dreams, and out of how we raise our children. A president attempting to beguile each child in America, trying to get little children to promote his agenda, doeson’t seem like the government that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison established.
When President Obama goes into each classroom, bypassing our own community checkpoints like our school boards, bypassing parents–it sure seems like government is getting pretty personal, pretty intimate with our day-to-day life.
Even more insidious is that he knows those children will go home all pumped up, like they do for those fundraisers, begging their parents to support a president whose plans they cannot even begin to understand. They just want to help. When their parents do not jump on the bandwagon with them, guess who ends up being the bad guy? The government driving a wedge between parents and children sure doesn’t sound like my America.
On Tuesday, my two youngest sons will be having ice cream with me and their dad while President Obama speaks. We’re going to be reading the Preamble and Article 2 of the Constitution. We might even talk about what President James Madison, the 4th president of the United States, thought when he wrote the Federalist Paper 45.
In Matthew 22:21, Jesus says to “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” So far, in American, my children do not belong to our government. They belong to their parents. Let us keep it that way!
Wow, this is so well said, every blog that cares about America should have a link to this post!
You do understand the spiritual implications of having a person in power that is under the authority of the Jezebel spirit… which is what is happening to your country, I believe.
If you have time, you may want to read my heart as I poured it out in a blog post I wrote: Kingdom Authority
http://mla-crownofglory.blogspot.com/2008/04/kingdom-authority.html
If only kids of impressionable age had parents like you and your husband, who knew how to guide them to help them discern the self-serving agenda of people in power, this would be a much better world. There are very many kids out there who are left to figure out this world on their own.
We just have to keep praying for the circumstances that we find ourselves in. God is not “in control” — as many Christians have been taught. God is not a controller. Satan is the ultimate controller of people’s hearts. A controller gives you the same idea as a puppeteer… manipulating puppets movements . God isn’t like that. He gives us free choices… and our planet earth and we humans are now experiencing the consequences of bad choices TO THE MAX.
But God is SOVEREIGN. This is what I always want to emphasize. Sovereignty vs. control.
He will even out the score in the end. The tares and the wheat are allowed to grow together.
Let us be the overcomers who will become the remnant who will inherit God’s kingdom.
Love
Lidj
Thank you for a fabulous blog post! My children get to enjoy a picnic with Mom that day too – just like sex and religion, it’s not the public school’s job to push any agendas on my kids; that’s up to me and their daddy.
I told the school board that when my sons and daughters can bring a Bible to school, openly pray, and attend Creationism class, I will THINK about letting them view political spew in the classroom.
Thank you again. Your post was well written and perfect.
[…] Posted by Sandra on September 7, 2009 https://bluecottonmemory.wordpress.com/2009/09/06/obama-is-not-my-kids-mama/#comment-619 […]
Well, of course, I don’t want a person whose skills and abilities make him or her ideal for collecting garbage to do surgery on me. But also I don’t understand why people are calling the health care plans socialism. I think the heart of my questions is: when is a government-operated service just a service (like the military) in these arguments and when is it socialism?
Wow, Very well put! I hope you don’t mind, but I would like to put a link to this post up on my blog. You caught my attention with your title alone! 🙂
So, let me get this straight, you don’t want your children to be able to think for themselves?
Oh but another question I have is, please tell me why all this minivan moms are raising such a stink and whipping out their bibles over Obama’s speech but BUT had no issues with Ronald Reagan, or either George Bushes pushing their “be in school” speeches on children?
Oh and I totally agree with Deanna.
Personally, our country is falling more and more in the dumpster when people think it’s ok for a stranger to slap a baby in Walmart who is of no-relation but are ASTONISHED and OUTRAGED to the point they remove their CHILDREN from getting an education,… even for ONE Day instead of doing what is their JOB (ahem.. parenting) and TEACHING their children the differences at HOME. Oh wait, these are the same parents who are screaming and outraging at the fall of America but love their Walmart!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
It’s so nice to meet you! Thank you very much for your kind visit to my blog. You’re always welcome.
~Blessings to you this Labor Day. ~Melissa 🙂
Thank you so much for commenting and leaving me with that verse. I looked it up as soon as I read your comment! Thank you!
Very well said! I do not want my children to have any part of Obama’s Socialist agenda!
Excellent post!! Very well stated. I’m with you and you mentioned the sales pitch and heart strings pulling and that made so much sense.
Thanks.
My kids aren’t even in school yet. Teacher strike! Oh well, we won’t have to worry about that speech in the classroom yet. I’ll be well prepared when it does come up.
Take care,
Nannette
I don’t read of locker or backpack searches in public schools wherein the object of the intrusion is the Bible and the purpose is confiscation. Nor am I aware of individual students being stopped from conducting a private prayer to God if they’re doing it between classes, at recess, lunch or study hall. Is it true, as inferred in a prevous post on this thread, that private possession of the Bible on public school grounds is forbidden? Is it true private (yet in the open, “openly”), individual prayer is forbidden in the circumstances or at the times I describe? Please, don’t cite an isolated event, make a compelling case it is nearly universal and thus constitutes true, widespread public school board policy across the entire nation.
i’m not sure you’ve read the speech. i have it linked over on my blog. there is no socialist or communist agenda. it’s simply about creating a plan, staying in school and getting an education.
i may not agree with obama as a president. and these are definitely scary times. but our country is going to fall apart because of peoples fears and their panic, not because of the president.
i totally agree with your commenter, hypocrasy abolisher. her point about having no choice but to listen to the idiot gwb speak…and no one raised a stink about that???!!!
i could go on and on. i have for the last 3 days over on my own blog.
i think your post is excellently written but i don’t agree with it!!
but that is why we all have separate brains, eh?!
yes, I have read the speech. My post was written before he released the speech. I’ve been to your blog and enjoyed your treatment of the subject! After all the hoopla, I do wonder if the speech he released yesterday was the same speech he intended. I don’t care for the Q&A plus activities originally listed. That affected my decision. As I’ve said, I don’t have a problem with my high school students participating. Thanks for visiting and adding to the discussion. That’s what our country is about – listening, respecting, and sharing differeing opinions. BTW, I enjoy your blog!
and i enjoy yours!! and the beauty of our country is the freedom to express ourselves, right!! yay for that! which, is why we blog.
i will be back. because i think i like you!!
Fantastic post. I’ve been watching reports and views on this on the news. Being Canadian..I am glad my children will not be exposed to that.
You are very well written.
Thanks for you kind and honest comment on my blog.
sincerely,
Lisa
Wow! This was a great post and a great discussion afterwards. I was very informed today. Thanks so much.
Christy
I’ll give fuel to thought:
Hmmmm…….
Hypocrasy Abolisher: Is it WRONG for a parent to have a SMALL piece of the pie of teaching their children how to think? ???
Seems it is OK for every OTHER influence to to “mold’ our children ……. with what to wear, eat, find socially acceptable, find as entertainment, how to look, what is valuable, what makes person good.and desirable ……….. YET you imply it is wrong for the PARENT to do the same?
Do we want the politicians and the cartoon network to get 100% of the credit for raising American children?
To the good, and moral parents out there: Never apologize for molding your young children in the ways which are true to your heart. If you don’t “raise” your children, someone else will.
Awesome post! Hey sweet lady, I two things for you over on my blog. Come and get them!
Blessings,
Teresa <
http://toomanyheartbeats.blogspot.com/
Exactly! Very well said. I laughed at the “man behind the curtain” reference. A friend of mine and I have also been using the exact same Wizard of Oz analogies. As he put it, we’ve reached the plot-point in this movie where Toto runs behind the curtain.
And I am tired today already of everyone making this about Obama’s speech when for the majority of us it has always been about the before & after discussion, NOT THE SPEECH!!
Thanks for visiting my blog on this topic: http://mamabirdsblog.com/2009/09/05/the-donkey-in-the-room/ and for directing me here! Happy to find like-minded bloggers out there to share with!
So happy to have read this today! My husband and I feel the same way you do. And we’re thankful our children aren’t of school age yet.
Amen.. I dont think I could have said it better my self?
I have not yet read the spech and plan on it tonight.
My son is only in first grade and soaks up everything he hears his teachers saying. Last year, during the election, he came home saying, “I voted for Obama Mama b/c his name is so cool.” His “girlfriend” came out saying, “I voted for John Mccain b/c he looks like my grandpa”…guess what…both of us parents fumed at our kids.
Our children are very impressionable at their young age and if I can influence my child to be a well rounded, educated child, I will… I think you were brilliant to take your child out to ice cream and teach him a few things about America.
Had my son’s school watched a speech to the children (sounds kind of creepy to me…I mean, like 1984 type creepy 🙂 he might have had a little more sleep this morning…goodness knows he needed it.
You are their mama.
And a mighty.
Fine.
One.
Sweet dreams.
I don’t want to take sides. Or even make sides. I would really like to hear and understand.
Please look at my earlier reply to the blog entry. And explain to me, in gentle terms, when a government service becomes socialism? i.e. is the interstate system socialized transportation? is the military socialism? is the criminal justice system socialism?
Thanks.
A capitalistic government puts jobs in the people’s hands. When the government takes the free enterprise system, putting it under its auspices, taking the control of individual destiny out of the people’s hands, then you move into socialist territory. Our constitution establishes that government will provided roadways, a military, and a justice system. Anything else takes the power from the people. The rights of the community over the rights of the people defines socialism. The automotive industry, the banking industry, the health care system is all private sector business that should be in the hands of the pepole. When government starts running personal enterprise businesses, those businesses become government businesses which was not the intent of the creators of our consistution. The United States government designed to prevent government from meddling in the people’s business except for the very minimal areas defined in our constitution. Our constitution establishes the rights of the people over the community.
A lot of the dialogue coming out of this administration can be headed under “Marx’s ideological theory, “From everyone according to his ability to everyone according to his need” is the foundation of exploitation and reducttion of freedom.” When government decides how much money you can make, how much you have to “share” with your neighbor, and how you need to do your business, you stray into socialist territory.
For a president to leap frog over the heads of the parents and directly address young children smacks of communistic behavior, its manipulative techniques documented. I address the actual content of the speech in the follow up post: https://bluecottonmemory.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/the-day-obama-rattled-the-school-house-doors/.
As always Deanna, I value your input into the conversation. It definitely elevates the quality of discussion!
Thank you. You gave me something to think about. And I’ve really enjoyed exploring each other’s minds instead of setting up walls.
Great post! I didn’t want my kids to have Obama talkiing directly to them, during school hours, without my present either. I actually liked his speech. It was all the after activities the government suggested I didn’t care for. It ended up our school didn’t even air it.
Great post! Very well said.
[…] to my faith when times get tough an out-of-the-norm response. You can read more on my response in Obama is Not My Kids Mama and The Day Obama Rattled the School House […]