Things Hollywood Gets Wrong About Raising Children

I love going to the movie theater and escaping the burdens in my own life
for a few minutes. It is one of things I have missed most during this crazy
year. Instead of going out to escape, my family and I have spent more time
streaming shows from home. While we have saved money in one sense,
we definitely have not benefitted much from what we are filling our minds
with.
There is an abundance of so called “family friendly” shows that mock the
parental influence of the family unit, treating mothers and fathers as nothing
more than idiotic providers who cannot relate to their children. The children
are boastful, self-centered, and have an attitude of enormous proportions. I
do not want this kind of “entertainment” modeled for my family.
Hollywood continually produces material that glamorizes and glorifies
unholy behaviors and unfortunately, it is aimed at our young people. Our
enemy knows that he can persuade our youth away from righteousness by
glorifying those behaviors, attitudes and teachings which are contrary to the
Lord’s doctrine. President Nelson has pleaded with the youth to come
closer to the Lord in order to protect themselves from worldly distractions
and deceptions.
One of the errors in the world of modern entertainment are that parents are
not all that important. Families look like a lot of things nowadays, but they
are essential. Every child needs a place to belong, a place of safety and
love. Hollywood likes to show us that parental rules are made to be broken
and that we should let our kids choose to live however they wish. Yet, when
there is a natural consequence of their own making, they do not hold kids
accountable for their choices.
Hollywood would have us believe that if we choose to raise children, we are
missing out on greater things. It will teach us that our value lies more in
making money than building character and future leaders. It will teach us
that violence is a normal part of childhood and that youth are ready for
intimate relationships. We are constantly barraged with images of
immodesty and sexual promiscuity, normalizing behaviors that our
Heavenly Father taught were meant to be kept sacred. It also would have
us believe that we should just be friends with our kids, rather than
guardians who love and wish to protect these precious souls. We live in a

day where couples are choosing dogs over having children to maintain their
“freedom”.
As parents, we have a purpose, one of such magnitude that the adversary
is waging a war on our parental callings. It is our duty to teach children how
to make wise choices, to step away from worldly pleasures and to find joy
in higher causes and future blessings. We should do our duty to raise these
stalwart youth who have been invited by our prophet to become part of the
Lord’s youth battalion. He said to them, “My dear extraordinary youth, you
were sent to earth at this precise time, the most crucial time in the history of
the world, to help gather Israel. There is nothing happening on this earth
right now that is more important than that. There is nothing of greater
consequence. Absolutely nothing. This gathering should
mean everything to you. This is the mission for which you were sent to
earth.” 1
By divine design, we have been commanded to raise our children up to the
Lord in families. As we listen to President Nelson’s pleading, we can do
everything in our power to put Hollywood and its false philosophies far from
our hearts. Just as our children were sent here at this time to gather Israel
in preparation for the Savior’s second coming, we were sent here before
them to mark the path of truth and safety.
1. “Hope of Israel”, President Russell M. and Sister Wendy Nelson,
Worldwide Youth Devotional, June 3, 2018, Salt Lake City, Utah