My personal experience

This past week was one filled with stress, anxiety, and humiliation! Besides working for 8 hours per day at my internship, I attend class twice a week, and care for my three sons. The days I work and attend class I do not see my sons for about 30 hours.

This week I felt the sting of frustration as my youngest son began having trouble in school. I feel guilty working and going to class. I think perhaps he is misbehaving because I am away so much. On Monday I received a call from his caregiver stating that he'd called her son "bad" because he was black. How ironic is it that we studied this exact phrasing with children just a few days prior. My husband and I are very strict with them about bullying and racism because my husband experienced bullying in school first-hand, and knows how it can damage a child. I was horrified that my son said such a thing, and wondered how he picked it up. It made me wonder if the media had an effect on him, or (most likely) he heard it at school, since he doesn't watch a lot of TV.

My concerns about this are not only of how television affects my boys, but also how the outside world will affect them, even when I'm not around. My husband even mentioned home-schooling, but as a former home-schooled kid, I know that won't solve the issue--the media is all around us. The best way to handle this is to teach them from the beginning how to behave. I hope I'm right....I want to work and put my degree to good use, I just hope it is worth it in the end.