by Elicia Flom

Created on: March 07, 2009   Last Updated: March 08, 2009

P. U. no, not the sound made when changing a very "ripe" diaper, but the abbreviation for "parental unit" our children use frequently when alerting one another that a parent may be on the verge of discovering something supposedly well-hidden, overhearing a conversation with questionable details or smelling their discarded laundry mixed with dirty, wet towels covering the bathroom floor. While pleased that our children inherited a sense of humor, it is no coincidence that the abbreviation "P.U." is identical to the sound made when describing something that smells really bad. Parents control television viewing. Most children enjoy "television viewing". So parents who exercise control over television earn the P.U. designation.

When we became parents, we made decisions about how to raise our children so they would become productive members of society. Controlling what our children were exposed to through television, computers, movies, radio and other media was no different to us then deciding which family members, friends and members of the community would be granted access to our children. While it caused, and still occasionally causes confrontation with our children, we held firm to the belief that ultimately it is the "parental unit" who governs television viewing until the child is capable of making those decisions independently. Further, the better we do our job in the early years, the sooner the child can responsibly make those choices.

Regardless of the "parental control" provided by the media, understanding the rating systems is nearly impossible. The few parents who have unlocked the secret code and know definitively the number of swear words, violent actions, "sustained and intense" scenes or other variables that determine the difference between PG and PG-13, for instance, should be nominated for a Nobel Prize. The rating systems used on movies, CDs and computer games available are supposed to help parents decide what is acceptable but the ratings are highly subjective at best and redefined too frequently. So even parents attempting to use parental controls available through media are as likely to expose their children to something they believe is unsuitable for their children as if there were no controls at all.

Not all "parental units" have the same philosophy for raising children so consequently some "P.U.s" would rather turn over their rights and responsibilities to an anonymous television controller. Whether it's a group of people or one individual

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