Your Child's Awesomeness Quotient

So, dear readers, I received this important question today.  It's a question of epic-proportions and life-altering eternal consequences, Read below.

"Carissa, can you please write about the appropriate age for children to first watch Star Wars and Lord of the Rings so as to minimize nightmares and night terrors and maximize on spiritual growth and initiate the process of becoming awesome. I personally think three years old is good, but my wife disagrees and would be willing to take your advice."

Well, let's walk this line carefully. There is indeed so much at stake, as you so well stated....both Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings are crucial to your child's all around awesomeness development.

Let's break it down.   Three year olds cannot discern between fact and fiction, imagination and reality. They aren't even close to abstract thinking, if they see it.....it's real, and no one can tell them differently.  In all seriousness, I agree with your wife, three years old is too young.  Most children start having bad dreams around the age of 3 1/2 or 4. Why?  For this very reason, the things they are exposed to in the day time, come to haunt them in the nighttime. What age do children start requesting night lights and leaving the door open?  Three years old? Again....for the same reason.

Each child is different, but across the board.....three years old is a really sensitive age and way too young for such intense movies.   (We haven't even talked about how obsessed this age gets with reenacting violent scenes).  Anyway, although there are many life-development lessons to be gained in the exposure of such classics at an early age......the cons way out-weigh the pros!

So, with that in mind, I have laid out a reasonable movie plan to help your child take baby steps towards his/her awesomeness development:  This has been tested/re-tested on my own children throughout the years, and I stand by it.

Try to understand that exposing your child early could potentially cause your child to come down with the dreaded, 'scaredy-cat big baby' syndrome, which would significantly reduce your child's awesomeness quotient. 

4-5 years old  Introduction to Star Wars IV (as it's generally the tamest of all)
5-6 years old     Star Wars V and VI
6-9 years old    Repeats of Star Wars IV, V, and VI can also be shown as this will aid in awesomeness development, other classics like the Neverending Story, Spiderman 1,  Superman, and other classics will also help.  As much as your tempted....make your child wait for the newer Star Wars.
9-12  Star Wars I, II, and III can be shown. More than once.
Finally as your child has been taking these baby steps into awesomeness, you can introduce them to the all time classic, LOTR  between 10-13 years old.

We can talk another time about appropriate classic movie exposure for the early teen years.

Hope this helps.
Carissa!

Introducing Carissa

Welcome to my new blog! Hope it blesses you!  My name is Carissa Alma, about 15 years ago I sensed God calling me into a life of missions. I had a BA from University of Georgia in Early Childhood Education, and a MA from Asbury Seminary in Missions/Intercultural studies.  I left my home in America, and set out for Asia (I can't get too specific since the area I'm working in is actually a closed area).  After exploring, learning, and volunteering around the country, I decided to settle down (13 1/2 years ago).  I joined some Asian friends and together we started Joy Children's Home!  (You can read a little more about this cross-cultural journey in my book, Thriving By Carissa Alma.)

Over the past years we've adopted 48 beautiful children.  All came from broken backgrounds, and were without families or hope.  They were orphans, but now they have been adopted and are thriving in every single way possible.....THRIVING!   With God's grace, we are raising these children into adulthood;  we are in awe of them and who they've become!

I believe God has given me wisdom, discernment, and anointing to be able to raise children well.  I'm not perfect, not even close.....but......I have a lot of kids! Different ages, personalities, backgrounds,  talents, strengths, weaknesses, giftings, struggles.  Someone asked me "Carissa, what would you do if you ever got kicked out of Asia? What kind of job would you get?" I jokingly replied, "I'm not qualified for anything.....except raising children. I guess I would hire myself out as an American super-nanny, of sorts!"   While most parents raise children and have a short season of toddlers or a short season of kids in elementary school, or a short season of teenage kids.....I've had more than 13 years of ALL!!!

Even now, I'm raising all ages!

I have 15 boys and girls between the ages of 3 and 11.
I have 14 teenage girls and 14 teenage boys!
I have 5 young adults between the ages of 20-22!

We have artists, musicians, great students, class clowns, dancers, athletes, leaders, writers, and missionaries!

We have children with ADHD, Learning Disabilities, special needs, developmental disabilities, and physical struggles from Epilepsy to HIV.

We have children with traumatic and abusive pasts, children whom were loved, others whom were neglected, and others whom were abandoned.

All, literally ALL of them are thriving here now under God's grace!

I hope and pray that this blog would be an encouragement to all who read! I hope I can share some of what I've learned with parents along the way. There are some truths that know no boundaries and are universal. I hope to share those parenting truths in this blog!

If you have a parenting problem/question and need help, just write to carissaalma@gmail.com, I will keep your names/details confidential, but will be happy to share my insight through this medium!