Monday, February 11, 2013

Too Young for the ‘Tube’?

I have recently read some news articles about the effects that watching television can have on infants. Many studies have been done on the matter, and I am finding that I have been introduced to information overload on the subject. I first became curious about this matter when someone told me that ‘Baby Einstein’ is facing a major lawsuit due to their false advertising of “increasing infant’s intellect”- which it does no such thing. In fact, studies have shown that it can actually cause attention disorders later on in life, usually starting around the age of seven. Most experts agree that children under the age of two should stay as far away from television as possible because it can stunt their brain development.
This is a subject that I feel pretty passionately about because more and more parents are letting the ‘tube’ become the babysitter in the home. Children need to be actively engaged and have human interaction. They need stimulating toys- and no, this does NOT include apps on your ipad, phone, or other electronic devices! I was sitting in church one day when I noticed that a parent handed over their ipad to their child who was not even two years old yet. Really?! Whatever happened to fruit loops and board books? Anyway, this led me into trying to research the effects that ipads and other such devices have on children and this area has much less research. I did find one article that I really liked (link here) that says that some apps can actually help children quite a bit, but is usually recommended for older children and not infants. It also talked about how ipads can either be beneficial or harmful if it is either encouraging ‘talk time’ with the parent or taking away from it. In other words, if you and your child are interacting together with the device, it is much more beneficial than if the child just uses it alone.
Perhaps I am extremely old fashioned in my views on this matter, but I just don’t agree with exposing your children to media at such a young age. I definitely do not wish to offend anyone, but I do think that if you are a parent than you should research this for yourself so that you can make an educated decision. ‘Baby Einstein’ got away with claiming that their dvd’s were educational since 2004 before anyone called them out on it. It is highly likely that parents believed them and actually think they are helping their children become smarter. This is definitely not the parents fault. I think that most parents do the very best they can, they just don’t know any better. So if you are a parent, I would ask that you make yourself know better and educate yourself before you let something educate your children for you. And that’s the end of this soap box rant. Ta ta for now. 

Other sources:

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Utah Names

A little while back I was talking to my coworkers about potential names we were thinking about for Baby Palmer. After a particular name was mentioned my coworker was like, "That's such a Utah name!" When I asked her what a "Utah" name was, she proceeded to show me this video. I was dying laughing. Oh Utah, how you bring joy to my heart. You just have to watch this and its epic-ness.

The Divine Calling of Motherhood

It's late. I need to be in bed right now, but the pull to write is stronger than the pull of my night time meds, so .... here I am. T...