Deliberately Frenetic

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

We have our two grandsons with us this week, ages 3 and 5. We love them dearly and their parents. What I find fascinating though are several things. First, is all the foods they won’t eat. They’ve been stuck on bacon, waffles and oatmeal for a number of years. No matter what anyone tries to get them to eat, their first response is “no” without even so much as trying it.

Second, another thing I’ve noticed is that while they are boys and boys like to play hard, these two have very short attention spans, think they need to have some face-paced television show on in the background and their playtime is punctuated with frequent changes in direction, loud noises and even arguing over the same thing. This is often done to gain our attention. If we are not in the room, it isn’t long before they come find us. It seems they cannot be by themselves without the constant connection with adults. On one hand, I get it. On the other, you find yourself wondering when they will be able to play with each other for any length of time.

Don’t get me wrong though. The boys are intelligent, loving and generally respectful, but it doesn’t take much for them to become sidetracked. The older one thinks when he is told something that it’s time to enter into a debate about why his way is better. The younger one still understands that “no” means “no,” though he will also try to debate things.

This is not a complaint against the parents either. Many children today I’ve noticed are similar in the way they live life and I’ve wondered for quite some time why that is the case. When I was growing up, it was not like that at all. We played outside for hours and we didn’t necessarily come home until we had to. It wasn’t because we didn’t want to be home. It was simply because just being home was a bit boring compared to being outside, riding bikes and hanging with our friends. We did things away from the house. We were not glued to the television screen because our parents simply didn’t allow it.

At any rate, while they are here, I began to notice something with one of the TV shows they enjoy watching and have watched for a number of years. In fact, watching the show started at the babysitter’s house when they were babies/toddlers.

When they are here, they cannot really do anything without us around, as noted, seemingly needing constant affirmation. It’s a bit maddening at times. If we leave the room, it’s not a minute later that they must come and find us.

Then I started paying attention to one of their favorite shows, Blippi. I’m not sure why I never noticed it before, but all of a sudden, things began making sense. Blippi, as Wikipedia explains, “…is an American YouTube channel aimed at toddlers and children up to the age of about five years old.”

Blippi seems a bit unhinged and not all parents appreciate it. “But the loveable Blippi has come under fire from some parents who think that the show lacks any educational value and promotes dangerous and unhealthy values (such as running alongside a bus, making a mess and not cleaning it up, and the use of power tools).”[1]

Reviews of the show are mixed. Like with Blue’s Clues, some parents worry that Blippi being an adult but acting like a child is grooming behavior. While some parents worry that he throws things around and smashes things up, which might promote violence, others find value in his ability to get down to kids’ level and act silly, sing, dance, and have fun while teaching something new. One parent found his energy too overstimulating for their child.

The problem with Blippi is that he is always spinning, running, jumping, and making weird noises for no reason at all. For instance, if he walks from one room to another, he will jump, spin multiple times, jump again then make strange weird sounds that are not a reaction to anything nor are the sounds connected to anything he is doing at all. In essence, Blippi is a character that seems out of control. He never just sits and quietly talks to children. He is a live action cartoon. But even the cartoons of my young days were not nearly as frenetic in presentation.

I instantly noticed that our oldest grandson pretty much emulates Blippi. Our grandson cannot walk from one room to the other without spinning, jumping, and making strange mouth noises that sound like a cross between flatulence and a truck screeching to a halt.

You wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this grandson has ADHD tendencies and now it makes sense. So what do you think doctors will recommend? Of course, they will reach for their prescription pads, write out a prescription for Ritalin or something else and announce that this is the “cure.” So our five year-old grandson enters the medical complex system with an entry drug that really does not cure him in any way at all, but simply attempts to cover his symptoms.

The problem is that he will continue watching this same program, reinforced in thinking that this is the way children his age and younger should act. Both grandsons have a very short attention span (part of that is simply being a toddler), and before you know it will dump out every toy in the living room, play with something for two minutes or less and then run into the next room saying they want to play in the bounce house or outside on the tractor, etc. The results of their tornado is evident.

Why are we dealing with so many young children who have ADHD and other symptoms of uncontrollable behavior? It’s due to two specific things:

1. What they watch in order to emulate, and
2. What they eat

Our two grandsons have been raised somehow thinking that man lives by bacon alone. They used to like chicken and other things, but not anymore. Bacon, waffles (sometimes with peanut butter), or oatmeal is about it along with yogurt pouches. It’s so ridiculous yet my wife and I are not the parents so we cannot simply do what we did with our own children when they were little.

Between the lack of real quality food and the constant examples from Blippi about how they are supposed to act, it’s no wonder that they are the way they are, with only a very small attention span and the need to keep bouncing from one thing to the next. They pretty much love on snacks throughout the day, snacks laden with preservatives, gluten, MSG and more. These are their food preferences.

Is this all part of the plan to make young children dependent on drugs to make it through life? The difference between today and when I was a kid was that even if some kids had a tendency to express ADHD symptoms, because we all played outside, ran around, rode our bikes, or played neighborhood sports and games, our bodies were in much better shape because we did not realize that we were exercising, which, in my opinion is still the best way to deal with ADHD (and a reduction of certain foods). Now, it’s common to pop a pill.

Add to the problem of frenetically paced TV shows with a lack of good food and obviously there is a huge problem being deliberately created for today’s young children. If left unchecked, this will result in several generations of young people relying on medications to do what directed activity and exercise can do much better. So when those kids of today grow up to be parents and have their own children, putting their kids on ADHD drugs will be a no-brainer and automatic.

My wife and I think about our grandsons and we know they are good, intelligent boys. In fact, they are loving and sensitive as well. However, there is so little different types of food they will eat and the shows they watch that are gearing them toward a near pinball type lifestyle where they will always move quickly from one thing to the next, never finding any real contentment for any length of time.

I’m saddened by this because it seems to be done deliberately to dumb down the masses, creating a need for medicines that are touted as fixing what ails them but don’t. Parents really need to get hold of this problem because they are the only ones who can correct it. Unfortunately, too many don’t see it as a problem. “They’re just kids” they’ll say.

Years ago, when my parents did allow us to watch TV, it was usually at night before going to bed. Disney shows were based normally on quality children’s books then. The movies or shows made from these books were not the frantic paced spectacles we see today as normal fare. The movies/shows of yesteryear were actually paced much slower, like actual life. The plot was generally unveiled over time and the message was often clear enough that a very young child could understand it.

Today’s shows are not at all like those. They are often dark or edgy, very fast-paced and even ludicrous in their presentation. But this is what very young children come to believe is “normal” so when they want to be normal too, they then emulate the behavior they see on television. There is no real quiet or down time for children today unless sleeping. They are impacted constantly by digital messages and images through television, the Internet or their phones (if they have them that young).

We were constantly told years ago that technology is supposed to make life easier. That’s a lie. It has made life almost maniacal. Everyone is turning into Batman’s the Joker. That is the new norm and it’s reprehensible.

We not only see this on TV for children but we see it in many churches. The worship is designed to be completely upbeat and moves along a very fast pace. I realize that not everyone likes the old hymns (my wife and I do), but we’ve completely bypassed the choruses from the Maranatha Singers to something else. As I look back, it almost seems as though the Maranatha choruses were used as the “gateway drug” to get people to what is being used now, which, for the most part, is absolute garbage (and I say that as a rock drummer for years).

Going to church today often means light shows, loud music, “worship leaders” on stage gyrating to the beat and it’s supposedly all done as a form of “worship” to God. Quite frankly, I doubt He’s impressed.

Sometimes I yearn for the days when I was a kid. It was overall quieter, more peaceful, more athletically active (good for muscles and brain), and there were not so many constant interruptions and frenzied activity simply for activity’s sake.

Kids today do not know what they don’t have. I do. Others my age realize it as well. It’s sad to me that so many young children are growing up in a world where frenzied activity is the accepted norm and eating only one or two types of food is fine.

This needs to change but it can only change when each set of parents understand the attack that has been and continues to wage against today’s child.

[1] https://www.goalcast.com/what-happened-to-blippi/

[2] Ibid

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective