by Rick Weiner

Created on: June 18, 2008   Last Updated: May 09, 2012

Those who believe that professional sports leagues need to 'clean up' the advertising shown during their broadcasts are simply looking for someone else to blame for their shortcomings as parents. As a parent, it is YOUR responsibility to not only know what your child is watching, but to DISCUSS the subject matter with them if they should inquire or make a comment. If your child is under 13 years old, they may or may not pick up on the 'sexual innuendo' that some of these commericals portray. However, do you really think they have not seen/heard the same or worse at school?

Instead of isolating children from reality, which will undoubtedly lead to some sort of social or emotional issue later on in their life, it's time for parents to take an active role in their child's development and realize that children are PEOPLE. Just like you and me, they have feelings, thoughts and questions on a wide range of subjects. Would you rather that they learn about these things from their friends and classmates, or from you? Would you rather, when your child is 18, that they have no reservations about coming to speak with you about anything - no matter how embarassing - or again, go to their friends and classmates?

While sports leagues absolutely have a responsibility to screen every commercial that will air during one of their broadcasts, what exactly have they allowed on television that is so horrifying? Janet Jackson's 'wardrobe malfunction' at the Super Bowl a few years back? The most overblown 'incident' I can recall in the past 10 years and one that most likely had other countries laughing hysterically over our reaction to it. Oh my god, a woman's breast and part of her nipple were showing. Cancel the rest of the Super Bowl! The NFL should cease to exist! 99.99 percent of women have breasts and nipples. (This is not a fact, but something I would assume to be fairly accurate based on my own experiences - where 100 percent of women have had both.) Your children already know what they are, because they have them, too! You've already told them what they are! So why the outrage?

I thank my parents everyday for raising my sister and I like they did. Regardless of the problem, regardless of the subject, we've always been able to talk to them about anything that was on our minds without fear of being ridiculed or judged.

It's time for parents to start becoming more than authority figures. It's time for parents to start becoming Mom and Dad instead.

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