Saving Our Sons and Daughters: Manipulation of the Mind | We Should Have Been Teaching Our Children About Men Like R. Kelly
R. Kelly stays in the media for what he’s done. Now that all of his extracurricular activities have come to light, I find some parents holding on to their kids a little tighter. But the question that lingers in my mind to all parents is: why wait until it comes to this point? Why wait until R. Kelly is finally being held accountable for his nasty, years-long behavior? Please tell your babies beforehand about the dangers of these types of people and by these types of people, I mean predators.
Let me be the first to say that I don’t condone R. Kelly‘s behavior in any way. I can’t even stand it. I think it’s downright sick for any man, not just R. Kelly, that age to prey on young girls period. I can’t see how a man my age or older could find any type of attraction to a teenager or a young child. However, and some people may be mad at me for this, I can see how some of our young girls and BOYS will look for love when they don’t find it at home. Hear me out.
It starts at home. When you love your child unconditionally, they don’t tend to go looking for love in other places. Love is kind. Love is patient. Love doesn’t boast or brag. That’s in the bible for some of y’all who don’t know. But love is also worldly. When our children don’t feel loved at home, they try to find it elsewhere. Sometimes they seek it through social media. Sometimes they seek it through other family members. Sometimes they seek it through outside sources. Some of those outside sources end up being grown-a** people who know better but love to manipulate young minds.
In this day and age of social media and predators galore, we need to educate our babies on being aware. Human trafficking is real. Organ harvesting is real. And more often than not, our Black and brown babies and bodies are the ones being attacked. We are targets. Another sad thing about this entire situation is, the mothers are left to be the sole caregivers and heads of households. Meaning, they may be gone from home more than fifteen hours a day leaving a HUGE window of opportunity for certain things to happen.
That’s not to say that a mother or father even is neglecting their children in any type of way; they just have to work to maintain their household. Opened doors mean more opportunities for these predators to slink in. Me personally, I watch out for all kids whether they came from me or not. I work in a school. When I see the kids in my neighborhood out late or somewhere they shouldn’t be, I make it my business to make sure they get home. I don’t have any problems taking them up off the streets and taking them straight home.
The kids may not like it but the parents are grateful because sometimes, the kids tell their parents one thing while doing another. I know that to be a fact because I was one of those kids. The only difference with me being a kid and kids now, there are more dangers they have to face. Pair that up with perverts and pedophiles, gun violence and lax supervision; it’s a recipe for disaster. No parent should ever have to go through the hurt of something happening to their child so I make it my business to step in when they can’t.
All last summer, I saw all the kids that graduated from the school I work at. I saw the places they shouldn’t have been with people they shouldn’t have been with. What did I do? I walked right up on them and pulled them away from the group of people they were with. I told them to look around and realize that if they were really their friends, they wouldn’t have them outside in any BS. I took them straight home and now, NOW? Those kids stay to themselves and do what needs to be done for them.
My neighborhood ain’t the best but it’s not the worst either. This ain’t the 80s or 90s anymore. Our babies are being snatched up with no clues. By the time we figure out even an inkling of what’s going on, there’s no way to find them. EDUCATE YOUR BABIES!
If something feels off, trust that gut feeling. If the situation doesn’t seem right, it more than likely isn’t. If your ‘friends’ are trying to get you to lie to your parents about where you are or where you’re going, don’t do it! Yell less and talk more. Raising kids and teenagers is hard to do in a two-parent household let alone with just one parent. Sometimes our babies just need gentle guidance and we have to give it to them. We don’t want them seeking outside sources that may harm them.
These people, these weirdos, men like R. Kelly, will manipulate them into thinking that we don’t care. That we’re just trying to stop them from living life. They will give them false love and hope. They will make them think that we don’t care about anything concerning them. And then they break them down. They’ll break them down so bad that our own babies will curse us to high Heaven and act like they don’t know us when really, they’re just crying to be heard and understood. LISTEN! Look at all of the girls and women who did it to their own families on the account of what R. Kelly has done to them. Even when you think they’re not telling us anything, they’re telling us everything we need to know.
Image Credit: Pool / Pool | Getty Images
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