who our kids mimic.

Imitation is the best form of flattery, right?  But what do you do when your kids have role models that lead them down the wrong path?  I seriously doubt that there are any kids out there looking at a hobo and saying, "cool that will be me one day!"  But these days you have people like Hannah Montana, Sam and Carly (on i Carly), Alex (on Wizards of Waverly place), and the list goes on and on.  These are who our kids look up to, immolate and want to become one day.  They are played on channels like Disney and Nick who should have a "squeaky clean" image...  and should be playing more down to earth 7th heaven style children, but if you really sit down and watch the shows (the girls that my child watches, daily!) they are not good examples for growing up without having a major attitude.

I have been having issues with my 9 year old this entire school year.  It has been a slow progression to "attitude" and it was not until i had lunch the other day with a friend that it hit me, and boy is she right.  She has banned these shows from her home because of the way the kids act on the show.  So i sat and thought about how i grounded my child from practically everything she owns to try to combat the attitude this year.  But i had not really taken a look around at her environment to see if the problem could be found somewhere else. The majority of her friends are super sweet, so i couldn't pin-point any issue outside of just her giving attitude.

When i say attitude, i do not mean arguing and yelling and her being pure bad.  But when your child is 9 and giving you that *look* of "give me a break mom, don't tell me what to do" when instead they should be saying, "i'm sorry"... "i understand"... or anything else that should be coming out of their mouth and less about that look on their face.  There have been a couple of instances when she has gotten a little rude and snapped something not nice for her age.  Something i would expect from a 15 year old not a 9 year old.  And i am of the mindset that too many parents let their children walk all over them.  I have seen it so many times where the kids control the room all because the parent doesn't want to just take the time to be a parent... they want to remain in that "friend" roll. 

So Friday i banned the shows that have the teenage girls with their know-it-all attitude, their give me my way wording, and just bad examples.  We'll see how it works out in our home.