by: Topher Wiles
“What the hick?” is a question that caused me to face-palm
at 2am. At this moment, you might be
wondering the same thing as me. What did
my two year old girl say? Ashley had asked
Clara to repeat that utterance and sure enough, “What the hick?” is exactly
what my sweet little girl meant to exclaim.
After being positive of what she said, as parents, we began our super-sleuthing
role of ascertaining the origin of her words.
We have no problem with any of the three words. “What?” is an interrogative question that we
generally encourage. I’ve already used the definite article “the” five
times in this writing. And let’s face
it, I’m a Tennessee boy who has at times epitomized the word “hick.” We don’t have a problem with the words
themselves, but where did Clara learn to string them together into this
specific usage? 
“Where did you learn to say those words, Clara?” is the
question my darling wife asked.
Immediately her blame was leveled at her five year old brother, Micah,
who was sleeping soundly in the recliner, waiting patiently on me to come home
from baseball practice. My interrogation of Micah would be postponed due to my
five year old not being able to stay awake past 9pm. Thus I headed to bed with the puzzling
questions on my mind, “Where did he learn it and why would Micah think that
phrase is appropriate to share with his sister?”
While I fell asleep quickly, my mind continued its detective
style work well into the dark recesses of the night, waking me when with a
fuzzy dreamy image of a red-bearded guy wearing a “DP” t-shirt yelling, “What
the hick!” in my face. That’s right, I
awoke dreaming of Tyler from the hit Youtube channel, “Dude Perfect.” These trick-shotting sports junkies are so
popular that you can buy their brand specific football at Walmart. My boys and I have been following the five
man Dude Perfect crew for about five years, ever since their hit video, “Pickup
Basketball Stereotypes” saw me laughing hard enough to spill milk from my
nose. Yes, sometimes these goofball guys
get a little crazy with their antics.
Yes, their funny usage of odd words gets a little more colorful than I
want for my two year old little girl.
Yes, it is my own desire to watch Dude Perfect videos that allowed the phrase,
“What the hick?” to creep into Micah and Clara’s vernacular. Thus my 2am face-palm.
Please understand that I don’t blame Dude Perfect for their
influence on my little girl. Their crazy
antics and colorful wording reaches their target audience of 13 to 35 year old
males very well. It isn’t their fault
that I have seen every single video on their YouTube channel, all 202 of
them. It was my desire for something a
little more mature that influenced my young children. This isn’t the first time we have had to
reassess our pleasure watching habits and the influence they have on our
family.
Thirteen years ago, we gave up our TV. That’s right, we cleared the spot on our
living room tv-stand around the time Google bought Youtube, Nintendo launched the
Wii, and Barry Bonds broke Babe Ruth’s home run record. It was my beautiful bride who first suggested
we unplug as our evening viewing pleasure consisted of a steady diet of “Friends”
reruns and the hot new show, “How I Met Your Mother.” Ashley’s question, “What do you think of
getting rid of the TV?” was probably met with a responding question similar to “What
the hick?” I’m grateful I followed my
wife’s suggestion (admittedly after much initial protest), and we’ve never
looked back.
Plenty of others have questioned our sanity. Some people thought we were crazy when they
heard we were TV-less in our home. “How
will you get the news?” “How will you
know the weather forecast?” “If tornados
come, are you going to be safe?” Even at
church, people were concerned with our decision to get rid of the TV. Some well-meaning friends claimed we’d be sheltering
our kids too much without TV. If making sure our children’s role models aren’t
Joey Tribbiani and Barney Stinson is “sheltering”, then I think sheltering is a
wise choice.
What did we do with the five+ hours of TV watching that the
average American loses from their day in front of a screen? We reinvested our time into tennis, books, hiking,
chess games, Bible study, piano playing, volunteering, and more. People have often asked how we are able to
accomplish so much in any given day, to which we usually respond, “We just don’t
own a TV.”
Unfortunately, with the rise of personal mobile TV screens
called SmartPhones, I’ve seen some of my valuable time waste away and some of
the cultural influences creep back in. According
to www.recode.net, the average person is spending
over four hours a day on their smart phones, and I’m probably one of them if
Dude Perfect’s influence on my 2 year old is any indication. With all the current data documenting the
negative influence of screen time on physical, emotional, and spiritual health,
it’s time to reassess my time investments. I think I’ll start making my changes by
deleting the Youtube app. With all the
recent international buzz over the creepy and suicidal “MoMo” influence on our
children today, deleting Youtube from my personal mobile device may be one of
the best things I can do for my family.
Whether it’s the influence the world is having on your precious
children or an honest self-assessment of how you’ve been investing your time, I
invite you to join me as together we strive to invest the best in our families.
E-mail me at topherwiles@spartacoc.com if you’ve
got a idea for wise time investment suited for a hopeful hick like me.
“Act like people with good sense and not like the unwise. These
are evil times, so make every minute count.” – Ephesians 5:15-16
For further reading check out the New York Times article: How to CutChildren’s Screen Time? Say No to Yourself First.
The word “forte” comes from the latin word “fortis” meaning strength. Our weekly Family Forte article in The Expositor is the effort of family at Central Church of Christ to give your family the love, care, and attention it needs to become a stronger version of itself. If we can help you in any way, please contact us at Central Church of Christ through email, topherwiles@spartacoc.com, or through our website, www.spartacoc.com.