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Gods, Machines and Parenting
BY Karen Rice-Leroux
(See also our online special "Internet Safety and the Pagan Parent")
When you are a parent, the computer can be the bane of your existence: monitoring computer time, banning web sites, watching for escapism and trying to maintain your child's grasp of your mother tongue, whether English or French, as they inject more and more computer short-speak into their daily vocabulary. However, that enemy can be used to make your job easier.
While without question, there is a global garbage pile of excrement in the guise of web sites for kids, there is also a pretty good selection of quality sites for Pagan parents containing all types of resources and information.
Note: Don't be too quick to dismiss video games either, some of those RPGs, when the amount of time spent playing them is monitored, can expose your children to mythology and familiarize them with the various pantheons and the names of the Deities.
The Final Fantasy collection, for example, contains a wealth of Deities. They're not always in their more positive aspects but that does allow you the opportunity to introduce the concept of balance through discussion of the characters. This is assuming you don't use video games as an electronic babysitter.
Pagan parenting is not that much different from any other form of parenting - everyone has their own unique challenges to face. From the religious aspect, the Jehovah Witness parents face the problem as do we, in a Christian society bent on commercializing every possible Holy day. Jewish parents have the same issues as do the Islamic and Hindu cultures in our country. The method to combat the buying frenzies that accompany Christmas, Easter and Halloween is through creating family traditions based on your beliefs. Use your creativity and watch for any opportunity to teach your children ethics and spirituality through life's lessons. Wailing against the influences is easy but actually turning this around and using it as an inspiration tool for your family is where you learn your role as a true parent.
As with most things Pagan- Witch Vox has a wonderful section for the Pagan parent: http://www.witchvox.com/xparent.html. You will find book reviews, Pagan home schooling advice (I did this for a year - it was a wonderful experience), articles and amazing links to web sites created for the Pagan parent.
There is also an e-list hosted by Yahoo; this list has been around since 1999 and provides a sense of kinship with other Pagan parents, not only in Canada but around the world. There are a lot of valuable links and other resources to be found. (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CanadianPaganParents)
Who doesn't love to colour? I still love the smell of a fresh box of Crayola crayons. This site has a wonderful selection of downloadable colouring pages: http://www.ashwood-arts.com/forkids/kidscrafts/index.htm. In addition - the web mistress has created Pagan-friendly online games like: create an altar game and match the altar tools game : http://www.ashwood-arts.com/forkids/kidsgames/toolmatchup.jpg
C.O.G. has a large list of books geared to specific age groups although the page is more of a book store than actual resource; http://www.cog.org/wicca/parents/kidbib.html
Take some time to surf the web and keep a list of links, on hand that provide a positive resource to help you in the job that lies ahead. The most important job you will ever undertake.
Karen Rice Leroux is the mother of three; founder and former president of WIPA. She is a member of the PFPC and involved with the Pagan Pastoral Outreach (PPO) although has recently returned to private life and practice.
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