I shield my kids from television and the internet pretty well. But nothing prepared me for the checkout counter.
We’ve all been at the checkout counter. I’m assuming most of our readers have been at the checkout counter with children. And I think you’ll agree it’s a dangerous place.
I was in the checkout counter just yesterday with my five kids and we’re sitting behind two people with carts full of stuff and we’ve got three people behind us. So we can’t go froward and we can’t go back. And I’ve got Snooki and Kim Kardashian with the cleavage on the left. I’ve got Elton John posing with his boyfriend and their baby on the right. I’ve got a magazine offering tips how to please your man in bed right in front of us.
It’s pretty awful.
So I’m standing there trying to talk to the kids to get their attention but it’s not working all that well. So finally I made an executive decision. I’m not proud of it but I did it. I told the kids they could each pick one candy off the rack. Well that got their attention. I can tell you they didn’t once look up at the magazines again.
I figured a little garbage in the body can be gotten rid of. Garbage in the mind is a lot more difficult to get rid of.
I saw this story in The Daily Caller where a market in Arkansas put a small shield in front of the Elton John cover. it covered about half the cover and said it was a “Family Shield” in order to protect young shoppers. Well the freakout from certain organizations prompted the market to remove the shield. How crazy is that? Kids must not be protected. It wasn’t like they took the mag off the shelves.
To be fair I think I would have put the shield on about 95% of the magazines I saw at the checkout counter, not just the Elton one.
So you guys know any tricks to help avoid kids seeing this garbage? I’m pretty sure my clever candy solution isn’t a long term problem solver.
February 2, 2011 at 8:36 pm
I have given our main grocer a bit of a stink on this issue, with nothing done…yet. Thankfully yet a little embarrassingly, our kids seem to be too busy looking on the floors and under displays for dropped coins to really notice the mags. Or else they're asking the cashier for free store coins to work the claw crane machine (away from the mag racks) to get some store stickers. I think I'll do the cooking mag cloaking trick if it becomes more of a problem. I'll also make the suggestion for a "family friendly" line. Good idea!
February 2, 2011 at 8:38 pm
I actually did complain to the Wal-mart store manager about the SI swimsuit issue a few years back – the one with all the women lined up topless (covered by only their own hands) with nothing but bikini bottoms on. I talked to the manager and asked to have that particular one taken to the general magazine area because of its graphic nature. He was very understanding, and told me that he would see what he could do. The next day, they were missing from the checkout aisles. Sometimes talking to the management works!
But I have also been known to turn around the magazines in the displays(as long as the backs are better). It's not against the law for the customer to do a little rearranging. These days, however, I do most of the shopping by myself.
February 2, 2011 at 8:39 pm
When we approach the checkout line, I tell my big kids to go sit on the bench and wave to themselves in the security camera. This prevents them from seeing the garbagey magazines, and from bugging me about gum and candy bars. They sit real nice for me, and the baby doesn't care. My problem is the large billboards outside. Can't avoid them!
February 2, 2011 at 8:44 pm
I flip over the front magazine on all the offensive ones. No one has stopped me yet!!! Let them try……….(:
February 2, 2011 at 8:46 pm
The squeaky wheel will get the grease.
Whilst stationed in Groton, Ct. back in the 80's I spied several "adult" paperbacks on the shelves of our base Exchange (sort of a military department store). I called the store manager and spoke about my 8 yr. old stepson being exposed to such filth. He gave me a verbal "shipyard salute" (shrug of the shoulders) and said he had to put out what would sell. I cordially thanked him, hung up and made an appointment with the base chaplain's office.
Maybe someone else complained, maybe that manager divined what was coming, because when I went back to get copies of the books for my talk with the chaplain, lo and behold all the smut had disappeared!
Who was it that said for evil to flourish it's only necessary that good men do nothing?
February 2, 2011 at 9:04 pm
I don't want to discount any of the suggestions about complaining, turning magazines around or finding stores/lines that don't have magazines at the checkout; but to offer other distractions to your children. Consider bringing "mad libs" where they have to use words from the items in the basket (look at the labels for adverbs adn adjectives), or guess how much to bill will total, or invent to "grossest" recipe from cart items. Or even get in line before all the shopping is completed and send children back for milk or cheese or other items.
February 2, 2011 at 9:07 pm
I think that my local Wal-Mart has one or two family-friendly check-out lanes. Though they have about 30 or 40 check-out lanes, so I don't know if the family friendly lanes are always open during off-peak times.
Our kids are just starting to get to the age where my wife and I have to worry about this. So far the kids haven't ever seemed to notice the magazines, but I'm sure it won't be too much longer. I like the idea of taking the front magazine and turning it around. I had already decided that I would do that if I saw a particularly egregious one. (In fact, I've done that in a doctor's office, to a pamphlet promoting vasectomies.)
I also like the idea of complaining to the store manager. This is something that I normally wouldn't do, just because I'm somewhat shy, and also I figure it wouldn't do any good. But who knows? It sounds like it is worth a try.
February 2, 2011 at 9:17 pm
like most people who have commented, i'll turn the magazines around or flip to page in the middle (but even then that's kind of hard because there's more smut inside the magazine too)
praying's a great idea too. i like to remind myself that i'm not just doing it for me out of my own weakness to potentially lust after the models, actors, etc. but also for other people, especially my fellow brothers, to help them protect their hearts too. of course, it also helps the women who don't play the "why don't i look like that?" game in their heads when they see the trash.
February 2, 2011 at 10:53 pm
1. Pray
2. Patronize stores that don't display smut, and tell the other ones why you won't be back.
3. If you have to go into a smut laden store, turn the magazines around, and be vocal about it. "Oh my, look at this smut, and right at my childrens' eye level! Shame on you guys!"
February 3, 2011 at 12:36 am
Interesting. Those "family shields" are actually fairly popular in my area. One of our large regional grocery stores (whose CEO and wife are devout Catholics and received the Seton Award from NCEA in 2010 for donating millions of dollars to Catholic Ed.) has them over all of the Cosmo, Glamour etc. type magazines and has for several years.
February 3, 2011 at 2:20 am
The magazine with Elton John, his boyfriend and the baby was particularly disturbing. Creepy.
February 3, 2011 at 2:30 am
Mention that you're a regular customer shopping for a family of how many?
They'll sing the right to free press all day long, but when you hit them with your ability to shop elsewhere, they listen better.
February 3, 2011 at 3:32 am
Edmund Burke said, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
February 3, 2011 at 4:03 am
I find its easiest to just ask a store manager. Most of the time, these folks have kids and they 'get it'.
Living in the Middle-East part of the year makes this stuff especially jarring when we go home to the US. There is very little advertising porn here by comparison and NO movement afoot to 'normalize' homosexuality.
You don't realize how saturated the US is with these images until you've left for a while.
February 3, 2011 at 4:10 am
I know they say 'sex sells', but when is it ever going to get sold out???
February 3, 2011 at 4:21 am
About 10 years ago in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a mother took her complaint to the manager of a local Kroger store and the chain quickly implemented a program of shielding the covers of the magazines. That's when Cosmo was really raunchy.
A straightforward complaint in-person to the manager telling him you will stop shopping if something isn't done within two weeks will probably solve the problem.
February 3, 2011 at 4:21 am
If my children ever look in the direction of the checkout line reading material, I always say to them "don't read that, it will lower your I.Q." This comment comes right back at me if they ever see me looking…
February 3, 2011 at 4:22 am
btw, Edmund Burke never made the statement about evil that is always attributed to him. It is nowhere to be found in his writings.
February 3, 2011 at 4:36 am
God forbid you should have to explain to your children that a loving couple in a committed long-term relationship are happy to have adopted a kid! Normalize homosexuality? It's occurred throughout time and across all cultures in a small more-or-less fixed percentage of the human population. It's simply a facet of the human condition–get used to it. Normalize homosexuality? Well, like it or not, it seems to be pretty normal in many professions: florists, hair dressers, dancers, interior designers, and oh yes, Catholic priests!
February 3, 2011 at 5:17 am
I don't take my children shopping with me anymore, after having to explain (sort of) about why the woman in the picture wasn't wearing a shirt! I've never seen the "family shields" for the mags.
I feel bad for the children who are being sexualized at such young ages, and I also feel bad that the sexualization of our youth is happening at such young ages. Human beings aren't trash cans for others to thrown their dirty thoughts, words, lusts, or actions into.