Unplugged Part 2

So after reading Unplugged Part 1 you’re probably thinking: OK, so it's more serious then I knew and I want my child to be healthy and socially appropriate and do well in school and sleep well at night etc... How am I supposed to do this when our culture is telling us to watch watch watch and buy buy buy??

(Or maybe you’re not and you think the AAP and I are full of crap, in which case you might just want to stop reading now. Don’t waste your time. Just so you know, I plan to continue spouting this ‘crap’ for the next couple of posts as well. Come back in a couple weeks.)

Well, for those of you still reading, I will be my usual blunt self and ask you the same question I had to ask myself: Do you want to let the big money-making companies decide what is best for your child(ren) and make your parenting decisions for you?

Not consciously, but is that what you're doing? We need to keep in mind what is best for our kids as we look at some of the products and commercials out there.

There are so many products aimed towards our young children that look awesome and are durable to resist accidents and are advertised as being educational. I am not saying that they’re not awesome, durable and educational, but I am falling back on one of my favorite sayings

Everything in moderation.

Just because it is designed for your 3 year old does not mean it is good for them to use all the time. Just because your 8 year old is the target audience for that product does not mean they checked with parents, pediatricians, teachers or other specialists to see if it is something that will be detrimental to them or not.

Example: Fruit snacks. They are really neither a fruit nor a snack. They contain high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors, food coloring (See my post about that here) and dextrose. All of those ingredients have been proven to have negative effects on children and yet the fruit snack boxes have popular cartoon characters on them.  I am certain I am not the only parent to buy them for my child without even thinking about how they will effect her behavior and academic performance.

Did I stop buying fruit snacks completely when I realized what they were doing to her mind and body? Of course not, but I do not buy them regularly or even semi-regularly anymore. They are classified as candy and treated as such. 

Everything in moderation.

So, how? How do we make this work? Peer pressure from kid to kid and parent to parent is not encouraging this moderation. I have realized this week though, that I cannot let other parents decisions for their children pressure me into making those same choices. As parents we each must make the best choices for our family and child(ren) that we can.

Of course, I have more opinions and ideas on this topic. Stay tuned