Letter to the editor: Parents, put the good stuff in your kids' minds

Perhaps the most important task facing parents today in this digital world is instilling in your children a sense of right and wrong and strong moral values.

Their senses are on overload with constant exposure via phones and tablets that have more computing power than the Apollo 11 spacecraft that NASA landed on the moon.

Gone are the days of building empires in your home with Matchbox cars and trucks with your friends. Today kids build empires on their electronic devices with pre-loaded scenarios. Problem-solving and reasoning and rational thinking are not developed. It’s all reactionary now.

Today’s environment seems like the world’s gone crazy. I was 8 in 1968 and though it was a crazy time. I was isolated from all the chaos because of a lack of technology and only having four or five TV channels.

Parents today, if I can offer any advice, it would be to limit your child’s exposure to TV and electronics. Do not use these devices to act as a babysitter so you can check out your Facebook and Instagram accounts. Invest in your child with your time. Find a church that is welcoming and go regularly. Immerse your child in church activities and let him or her know about God’s love.

Someone or something is forming your child’s mind. You are responsible for what goes in. Please put the good stuff in.

Raising respectable and responsible children is the greatest thing you can do today to protect the freedoms and security of our United States.

Carl Massart

Buffalo Township