Jonathan McKee, Author at Jonathan's Blog From The Source

Happy Autotuned Thanksgiving

Posted on: 11/13/12 1:32 PM | by Jonathan McKee

I’m not really sure how to react to Nicole Westbrook’s YouTube sensation, It’s Thanksgiving. If it were a parody… it would be hilarious. But this video is as earnest as Rebecca Black’s It’s Friday, over-autotuned just the same, and perhaps even more awkward.

The It’s Thanksgiving music video (produced by the makers of Rebecca Black’s It’s Friday) offers deep insightful lyrics:

Oh oh oh it’s Thanksgiving.
We, we, we are gonna have a good time.
The Turkey, Hey!
Mash Potatoes, Hey!
It’s Thanksgiving
It’s Thanksgiving

Seriously!

Take a peek.

The internet is full of haters who are blasting this video… that is not my intent. I just want to make a few observations about this music video as a youth culture phenomenon.

1. Today’s kids wanna be rockstars… at all cost!
A generation who was raised watching American Idol, The Voice and America’s Got Talent all see the potential for stardom. I respect those who are willing to work towards a goal, but Continue reading “Happy Autotuned Thanksgiving”

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Raising Kids When Divorce Gets Ugly

Posted on: 11/7/12 3:01 AM | by Jonathan McKee

I have a good friend who got married recently, and one of her wedding gifts was… two teenagers.

That’s right, she married a divorced man who has partial custody of two teenagers. My friend drove out to one of my parenting workshops and told me, “I better learn this stuff quick, because I skipped diapers and Sesame Street, landing right in the middle of MTV!”

It was this friend of mine who prompted me to provide some resources for parents who were raising their kids in divorced homes Continue reading “Raising Kids When Divorce Gets Ugly”

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No Voice

Posted on: 11/5/12 9:48 AM | by Jonathan McKee

It’s been a long time since I’ve lost my voice… but it’s gone!

This is a scary thing for me, especially when I’m scheduled to speak. It happened last Wednesday night about 8:00 PM. I spiked a fever and my throat started hurting. Thursday morning I woke up with a sore throat and a raspy voice. I worked for a few hours that morning… because I’m a man! Men don’t get sick!

By noon, I admitted I was mortal, tapped out, and went to bed.

My biggest fear was Continue reading “No Voice”

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An Excuse to Be Slutty

Posted on: 11/1/12 3:01 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Did you notice it this Halloween and the weeks prior? From the magazine ads and display windows of stores at the mall, to the costume parties across the nation. Halloween has become an excuse for girls to dress slutty.

I think Elizabeth Durand summarized this mindset well in the opening line of her article, Slutty Halloween Costumes for Nice Girls. She said:

“Every hot-blooded American girl knows Halloween is really just an excuse to dress like a tramp without being judged. Duh.”

Today’s sit coms seem to echo this mindset. In the hit show Big Bang Theory (3^rd most popular show last week), Penny wore a particularly trampy police-girl outfit. Her friend asks her, “Slutty cop?” Penny replied, “No, this is sexy copy. Slutty cop only came with a skirt and two badges.”

In the brand new show Ben and Kate, Kate’s friend BJ discusses hooking up with a guy during Halloween, assuring Kate that this holiday is the one time a year it’s okay to dress like a whore.

It’s sexualization at it’s finest, and sadly, teenager girls are gobbling it up.

If you don’t believe me, just jump on Party City’s most popular costume section on their website, something I’ve blogged about in years past. Look at some of these popular teen costumes this year:

Seriously? “Snow Bunny”? She’ll freeze!

“Unicorn”? It’s just a slutty teenager with a horn on her head!

“Sassy Sailor”? Really? Sigh…

Girls are learning young Continue reading “An Excuse to Be Slutty”

Posted in Entertainment Media, Jonathan's Rant, Parenting, Sexuality, TV, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Can I Smash My Daughter’s Cell Phone- PART II

Posted on: 10/31/12 3:01 AM | by Jonathan McKee

We’ve set guardrails, including some really well thought out cell phone boundaries that should be no problem for our kids to follow. But for some reason they keep pushing the limits.

That’s what ‘Dave’ explained to me, asking me for advice about what to do with his daughter. (See yesterday’s post, PART I)

Dave’s not alone. Young people today love their cell phones; but as handy as these digital Swiss-army-knives are… they can also be vehicles of distraction in our kids’ lives.

So how should we respond when our kids break our rules and veer from the guardrails we’ve set?

Dave’s daughter seems to be Continue reading “Can I Smash My Daughter’s Cell Phone- PART II”

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Can I Smash My Daughter’s Cell Phone? PART I

Posted on: 10/29/12 4:22 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Teenage cell phone use… er… misuse is the hot subject on parents’ minds. Teenagers are pushing the limits, and parents are questioning how to respond. My parent workshop last night was no exception.

After teaching my workshops, I always enjoy the chance to mingle with parents and listen to their struggles. Last night parent after parent approached me sharing a common plight:

“I’m having fits with my teenager and his/her cell phone!”

I assured each one of them Continue reading “Can I Smash My Daughter’s Cell Phone? PART I”

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Actually Setting Guardrails

Posted on: 10/25/12 3:01 AM | by Jonathan McKee

“Do you allow your teenagers to download anything they want? Do you check their text messages? Do they have a bedtime?”

This week I’ve been writing about the process of setting guardrails, and today is the day I post some of the guardrails I use in my home. If you’ve been reading this series of posts, you know this process doesn’t start with arbitrarily implementing rules that seem to make sense at the time. Guardrails are only as good as the road.

The process for setting guardrails looks like this:

Embark on the road of Biblical truth (I talked about this in my first post in the series).
Plot your trip, knowing where you’ll be, by when (yesterday’s post).
And finally… set guardrails that keep you from veering off course (we’ll talk about that in today’s post).

Now that we’ve embarked on the road of Biblical truth, and made a plan for our journey, which in my house, is a plan that includes no rules by age 17½ … now it’s time to set some healthy guardrails.

Here’s some thoughts to consider when setting guardrails Continue reading “Actually Setting Guardrails”

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No Rules by Age 17½

Posted on: 10/24/12 3:01 AM | by Jonathan McKee

“My kids need guidelines! What rules should I impose?”

Not so fast. What good are guardrails if we don’t even know where the road is going?

Yesterday I proposed that guardrails are only part of any road taken, and the biggest question to consider is… where is this road going? Once parents provide a Biblical foundation for their values, then the guardrails can flow from this truth.

So I guess the process looks like this:

Embark on the road of Biblical truth (I talked about this in yesterday’s post).
Plot your trip, knowing where you’ll be, by when (we’ll talk about that in today’s post).
And finally… set guardrails that keep you from veering off course (my next post, now posted).

So let’s talk about “plotting our trip,” to continue using the road analogy. In other words, where do we want our kids to be, and by when?

No rules by 17½
My goal is that my daughters won’t have any rules by age 17½.

Some parents think I’m nuts. But consider my reasoning Continue reading “No Rules by Age 17½”

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Guardrails Are Only as Good as The Road

Posted on: 10/22/12 4:28 PM | by Jonathan McKee

This week I’m posting a series in this blog about the guardrails parents need to set along the road of life. After all, I’m asked the same question at every parenting workshop I teach. It usually sounds something like this: “In a culture that provides so many profane distractions that are impossible to dodge, what guardrails should I set to protect our kids?”

Nothing like being under the gun—when I’m asked that question during a ‘question & answer’ time where the format provides only one to two minutes for answers. I’m always thinking, I teach a two hour workshop on this very subject… how am I gonna answer this in two minutes!

I guess the short answer is this:

Guardrails are only part of any road taken. The biggest question to consider is… where is this road going?

This brings up the foundational issue of Continue reading “Guardrails Are Only as Good as The Road”

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Will Young People Actually Vote?

Posted on: 10/22/12 3:01 AM | by Jonathan McKee

In 2008, the answer was a definite “yes.”

In 2012… yawn… not so much.

No one would deny the impact that young voters had on the 2008 election. Fast Company, in their April 2009 issue, named Facebook’s co-founder Chris Hughes, “The Kid Who Made Obama President.” Chris used Facebook to help get young people excited about Obama.

In November 2008, young people rushed to the voting booths, and two thirds of millennial voters (18-30) voted for Obama.

You might remember the history of that past election. Technology was a big part in wooing young voters. In February 2007 Obama officially declared his candidacy, launching MyBarackOboma.com, a social networking site with about 2 million profiles and 35,000 volunteer groups that planned 200,000 offline events.

In May 2007 the campaign took over a grassroots Obama fan page on MySpace with 100,000 followers. It grew to 3.2 million supporters Continue reading “Will Young People Actually Vote?”

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