I found this topic absolutely amazing. MrChill comes on here and makes a sincere apology about offending people. Then firemedichcfr14 asks nicely that he change his avatar because his little girl sometimes sees this site when he is on it and he doesn’t feel like explaining it to her right now. All of a sudden, everyone jumps in and this explodes into a huge debate over the state of morality in this country. The interesting thing is that MrChill could have said, “I understand your feelings, but I like my avatar and I am going to keep it.” Request enterred, denied and now they could move on. Instead, we have a full out internet war between various parties with no real conclusions and only two main rants: (1) You don’t know because you don’t have kids, and (2) Just because you have kids doesn’t mean you know it all. This discussion only serves the purpose of having arguements and juvenile name calling between parties. Well I am here to tell both sides that you are both right. Just because you have kids doesn’t mean you know it all. Conversely, until you have kids you don’t know how things will turn out for you. Neither sides viewpoints are invalid, just different.
Before anyone gets on their moral high horse, I will tell you now. I am a parent. I have 2 children, one boy and one girl. I have been through the vomit, lost sleep, dirty diapers, first words, first steps, sending them to school and all that, so I am not a new parent. I had ideas about being a parent, some are turning out to be right, some aren’t. The reason for that is that kids do not come with an instruction manual.
When a child is born, parents don’t get granted supernatural parenting powers. We learn through trial and error, just like anything else. What works for one kid, may not for another. This is why I can say that just because you are a parent, doesn’t mean you have a right to dictate to other parents your values and morals. What is right and wrong for your kids may not be for other people’s children. You don’t know everything.
As far as those who are brand-new parents or have no children, no one can tell you what will work for you with your children. However, I will say that as the children come along, some viewpoints will change. It just happens, whether you want to recognize it or not. That’s life.
As far as the avatar is concerned, I don’t think that if my children saw it, they would be damaged for life. However, I recognize that T-Nation is not a child-friendly website. Its not supposed to be. Therefore, I don’t log in on it with my children around.
On last thing that I found interesting about this declining morality issue in the media. The ones who are complaining the most are the ones who are supposedly in favor of a free-market society. They are the ones who want more controls on the media under the pretext of “protecting the children”. Isn’t one of the tenents of a free-market society is less controls and interference from the government? You can’t have it both ways, either you have less controls and a free-market or you have more controls and a not-so free-market. Or is it only considered restrictive and controlling when it is people who don’t agree with YOUR viewpoints wanting controls? If you want the controls, then it is ok, but if it is someone not like you, it’s not? This sounds very hypocritical.
The fact is that in a free-market society, you are going to have the good with the bad. You have to manage it under your own sphere of influence and not try to control others to do it for you. The desire to have control the way you think is should be done is directly opposite of the concept of the free-market society. In other words: YOU have to turn off the TV. YOU have to turn off the radio. YOU have to pay attention to your children. YOU are the parent and are responsible for your children. No one else.
You have to do it yourself and not try to rely on some big corporation that is only interested in making money or some government entity that only want to have power over you and yours. That is the price you pay for a free-market society. Do I like everything about it? No, I don’t, but I wouldn’t want the alternative.