13 Reasons Why You Should Watch This TV Series
By Mommy Donna and Kib - January 18, 2019
I like watching TV and movies. It is my way to relax, to get away from stress, and to learn something new. I don't watch local channels; most of the time I watch movies and shows on History Channel, TLC, AXN, Fox Movies, HBO, fyi. Sometimes I also watch documentaries on National Geographic and Discovery Channel. On the other hand, my son likes watching cartoons at Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network.
I have friends who already cut their cable TV subscription and just subscribed to online streaming websites like Netflix and HOOQ. I have been seeing their posts about the series that they have been watching, particularly at Netflix. There's this one series that I got really curious about, it's "13 Reasons Why". I rarely watched TV series these days but this one really got my attention. A mommy-friend of mine introduced this to me and recommended that I should watch it. After watching the first few episodes of "13 Reasons Why", it made me realize that there is a need for me to be updated with what's happening with adolescents. As my son is nearing adolescence, I need to be aware of what's happening within him and be sensitive to the things around him.
There are mixed reviews about the series, but let's be open to watch it on what we can learn from it.
Why do we need to watch it? Here are the 13 reasons why:
1. It helps you understand suicide. Now that suicide is rampant these days, we need to put ourselves in their shoes on why they did it. Suicides are planned, so we must be very sensitive to the clues the person is leaving before he/she actually does it.
2. It helps you understand the issues adolescents face. Adolescents are neither a child or an adult, and it gives them confusion as to how are they going to decide for themselves.
3. It helps you understand how bullying can damage one's morale. We already heard a lot of stories on how bullying destroyed the morale of an individual which sometimes leads to suicide.
4. It helps you understand that you can be a reason for one's suicide. In the TV series, the people around Hannah Baker contributed to her suicide, one way or another. In real life, we might be wondering why a particular person ended his/her life. There is an instance that we might have hurt that person in the past and that incident made an impact on his/her life. The show only reminds us to always treat people with kindness. An innocent prank may not be too innocent at all.
5. It helps you understand how you can process the difficulties your teenage child is undergoing. The parents of Hannah Baker are clueless that their daughter was undergone maltreatment from her friends. Parents should be the first persons to know and feel if their child has problems. Parents should be able to read clues that their child is leaving to prevent whatever harmful plans may their child have. Bottomline is that parents should be the first people that their child can run to when they have problems. We must earn our child's trust so that they will be comfortable in airing out their problems to us.
6. It helps you understand that a suicidal person don't give much clues that they will do it. We have seen on the viral pictures on the Internet that a suicidal person may show a smiling face but the following day, he/she already took his/her life. A suicidal person may show signs in other ways; not all the time a suicidal person looks depressed and wants to be alone.
7. It helps you understand that depression doesn't always show a sad face. Just like what I said in no. 6, a suicidal person may show a happy face. He/She may show clues in other ways, like cryptic messages on social media, or changes in the usual routine. Again, be sensitive.
8. It helps you understand that parents don't have always a control over their teenage child. This is one dilemma of a teenager; he/she is neither a child or an adult. Most teenagers are with their friends at this stage of their lives, so we really do not know what kind of influence our teenage child gets from them. We must always pray for our children and remind them to only stick with good friends and always treat people with kindness. No bullying or prank jokes.
9. It helps you understand what respect really means. We might never know that we are already offending people with our actions. We might think that it's just something petty, but for that person, it might already be something destructive and degrading. Respect means that you will not put someone in the spotlight to highlight his/her weakness. Respect means that you will not grab his/her private parts just for fun. Respect means leaving his/her things and not stealing or leaving a hurtful message on it.
10. It helps you understand that there are some people around you who don't really show genuine concern. Some people show their so-called concern just because they want to benefit from you. The show also makes us aware that there are people around us who will not treat us the right way. They only want to know information from you which in turn they will tell to other people. Let us be more discerning on the kind of people that we will allow in our lives.
11. It helps you understand to be sensitive to the needs of others. Some people will only leave little clues that they need help. A simple 'hi' already means a lot to a person who is having his/her downtime. However, your sincerity must also be genuine.
12. It helps you understand that mental health is something that we also need to put attention on. I am so happy that the Mental Health Bill is already a law in the Philippines. This means that health institutions must improve its facilities in treating mental health patients. In addition to that, people will be properly treated for their mental illness and people will be educated on how to take care of people with mentally-ill family member.
13. It helps you understand that your family is always there for you, no matter what. Always remember that your family will never leave you nor forsake you, so be open to your parents about the struggles that you are undergoing so that they can help you decide on the necessary actions that you will take. Your parents will fight for you no matter what.
"13 Reasons Why" has some adult content, so it is better to watch this with adult supervision. Better yet, just talk about the important issues to your child and remind him/her of the things that he/she must do when he/she is faced with life's difficulties. Most importantly, we must always cover our children in prayer because we can only do much for our children. The Lord has the best plans for our children so we must always ask guidance from Him on how we should raise our children.
"13 Reasons Why" is an original Netflix series. To be able to watch the series, you must subscribe to Netflix.
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