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.