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 Parental Guidance^©

 In the study sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation on children’s use of computer, TV, video games, etc. a typical American child was found to spend daily an average of five hours and 29 minutes on consumer media – almost an adult’s full time job.

This finding is alarming. Aside from the time constraint, risks of overexposure on electronic entertainments include obesity, poor eyesight and lower attention span. These may result to the child’s poor academic performance.

Children nowadays belong to the MTV generation; they are often used to MTV’s fast-paced programming. These programs change background every few seconds. Your child will be conditioned to this extraordinary pacing and soon ordinary world’s pace will bore them. Their concentration span will suffer much from exposure to these media. They will be listless in their class and will hardly read books. Ultimately, they will have adjustment problem.

A wholesome alternative from these compulsive entertainments is important. For young children, sports are not the all-time best option. A sport scientist at the University of Florida claimed that children pressured into sports competition too early or too intensely are more likely to turn off sports forever – most kids cannot handle the pressure. And at most, sports is largely concerned with physical development.

At young age, children’s minds are active, curious and creative. At this stage their creativity is dramatically increasing; you must give them something to fantasize and wonder about. Have you ever noticed how they drove an imaginary car, swooped down with an F-15, or begged the fairy princess to give their Barbie the coolest dress in the world? If you did, then you know what I mean.

Storytelling is a time-tested entertainment. A child’s mind enriched by stories would never lack imagination. We must tell stories to children because stories build a new kind of bond between the storyteller and the listener.

          Weak bonding between parents and children is a common family problem today. We, parents are working longer and longer, while children are distracted by so much technology. We are finding ourselves competing with MTV, VCD, and interactive games, and it seems we are losing grounds.

We can establish a foundation of communication with our children by telling them stories while they are young. This will blossom into a healthy communication line. The greater shared experience our children have with us relative to their total experience, the closer they will be to us. Thus we must increase the experience we shared with them in any way we can.

Aside from reading conventional children stories, it is advisable that we tell them anecdotes from our own experiences or tales from our creative imagination. This personal touch results to stronger ties.

My father often told me stories of his adventure in a “basnig”, a kind of deep-sea fishing vessel, and those are some of my most treasured stories. It seems I shared those events with him, and the sea will always remind me of him.

~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~

Marjonnel