Raising adults

The whole point to parenting is raising children who grow up to be well adjusted adults (or as well adjusted as possible).

Some experts argue no person ever grows up perfectly adjusted and all people have some trauma or issues with their childhood.

I feel this way at times, because try as hard as I might, my children will still tell me things that make me question whether I'm doing a good job or not. For e.g. one child recently told me they're depressed and it's because we (the parents) raised them that way... i.e. being depressed ourselves made our children depressed. I've always believed depression is genetic though the concept of nature vs nurture is not lost on me.

However, the constant that keeps me believing I'm doing ok is how my eldest child has turned out.

Is it possible to stop children viewing porn?

This question has been on my mind since giving birth. Will I be able to protect my children from viewing adult material (along with all the other things I need to protect them from)?

In a world where adult content is getting harder and harder to avoid, it can be a scary concept for many parents. There are billboards and bus signs, lingerie shops with larger than life posters, female nudity in numerous TV shows and movies, music video clips with barely dressed females gyrating around the camera. It seems like every man (woman) and his dog is using sex to sell things to the public.

There are predators lurking in all corners of the internet, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, chat rooms and online gaming.

I've written about this before, how we're told as parents "If you don't like it don't watch". This puts the onus on parents to police everything instead of government bodies (or whomever) policing companies that allow this type of material to be aired, shown or viewed by children.

I would consider myself to be a very diligent parent. I check ratings and information on movies before viewing them because I want to know if they're violent or contain adult content. Yet I have been shocked by certain movies (rated M) I didn't think would be bad, and accidentally exposed my children to content I didn't know was coming!

Still worse than that, I've recently discovered one of my young children (not even a teen) found (and possibly viewed) adult material.