Dear Dance Moms and show like it…

I am a Youth Minister and work very closely with the Children’s Ministry at New Life.  But I am also a a father of 4 daughters.  As much as I try to raise my girls up in a godly way, I am also not one to shelter them and prevent them from engaging in “the world”.  I grew up that way and by the grace of God and good parenting, I ended up just fine and strong in my faith.

With this background, I have seen my fair share of girls programming. Disney and Nickelodeon shows have been regularly seen over the years at my house.  However, as my girls are getting a little bit older, I have also been exposed to some newer shows recently.

For a few weeks now my daughters have been chatting about this show that they saw at a friends house.  You all may have heard about it, “Dance Moms”.  So, after they watched it a few times without me, I decided to watch it myself, just to find out what the hub-bub is all about.  That’s when I got really confused.

Maybe I’m just a guy and I don’t “get it” but as a father of 4 daughters, I find it really hard to believe that a network that advocates “a wide range of issues affecting women and their families” would advocate that it is ok for instructors to degrade and berate young girls (who are so impressionable and moldable at their ages) and treat their moms (who try to stand up for their daughters) so horribly.  The only positives seem to be when someone doesn’t “mess up”.  But if they mess up just slightly, Abby Miller will let you know and quite harshly…if not in person, definitely in her one-on-one times that are aired on the show.

Is this the kind of material that we promote and glorify to our girls?  No wonder why so many of them have low self-esteem.

So what do we do about this?  Do we become “holier than thou” and not let our girls watch this junk?  Do we sit behind a keyboard and just blast a show and do nothing about it?  Nope…that would be too easy.  The hard thing would be to actually use it for opportunity that it is.  That opportunity allows us to sit down with our daughters and those we minister to, and talk to them about a healthy point of view of who they are from a godly perspective.  Every moment is a teachable moment and watching this show with my girls provide many great interactions with them that I wouldn’t normally have.  It provides me with opportunities to speak the TRUTH of Christ into their lives rather than hear from people like Abby how girls should feel about themselves.

Thoughts?  Experiences?  Post a comment so that we can all benefit from it.