April 3, 2013  |  3:00pm
The Child, the Tablet and the Developing Mind

Interesting article from the New York Times.

A report published last week by the Millennium Cohort Study, a long-term study group in Britain that has been following 19,000 children born in 2000 and 2001, found that those who watched more than three hours of television, videos or DVDs a day had a higher chance of conduct problems, emotional symptoms and relationship problems by the time they were 7 than children who did not. The study, of a sample of 11,000 children, found that children who played video games — often age-appropriate games — for the same amount of time did not show any signs of negative behavioral changes by the same age.

So… watching videos = bad, playing video games = good…? My kids don’t watch much television, but Luke (age 8) does play 30+ minutes of video games a day, usually on his iPod. Half of it is chess, and the other half tends to be Angry Birds or one of the Lego games.

I’d rather he played outside or read a book, but at least he’s not watching TV. Right? I should feel good about that?

What do you think?

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Filed under: games link video tv television videos video games research nytimes kids child children childhood parents parenting parenthood dads fathers fathering fatherhood gaming
February 5, 2012  |  11:00am

Oh, Lego Friends…

I agree there is a problem here.  I just don’t think the problem is Lego. The problem is society, and the toy marketing industry.

Go ahead and complain about Lego. Should they should be better than this? Sure. But that is tremendously unlikely to happen in a profit-driven world that features major opportunities like this. I’ve worked in marketing. This is a huge opportunity for Lego.

To be honest, my kids are immune to the Lego Friends advertising because they don’t watch television.  Occasionally they watch PBS when in the care of their grandparents, but there are no toy advertisements on that channel.  So perhaps my outrage is less than it would be if I saw those ads frequently.

Maybe the solution is to stop letting your kids watch television, which is far more responsible for negative gender stereotypes than the toy industry.  After that, give your kids the toys that you think they should play with, and then play with them in the way you think they should play.  And whenever your kids repeat or mimic stereotypes from the world around them, take the time to discuss why the stereotypes are wrong. This is hard work, frankly, but it’s the only proactive option I see before us.

(Reblogged from sparkamovement. Video transcript available here.)

(Source: lipsredasroses)

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Filed under: lego toys play friends boys girls gender stereotypes stereotype society culture tv television kids dads fathers fathering parents parenting parenthood fatherhood childhood child children
October 24, 2011  |  8:05am
I'm a little teapot
[Scene: Luke, age 7, is watching the TV game show "Jeopardy"]
Luke: "What are they doing now?"
Me: "This is the final round, so they give them extra time to think about it."
Luke: "But why are they listening to I'm A Little Teapot?"
Me: "What?"
Luke: "This song. They're playing I'm A Little Teapot. You know... 'short and stout, this is my handle, this is my spout'?"
Me: "That's the Jeopardy theme song."
Luke: "Huh. It sounds like they stole it from I'm A Little Teapot."
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Filed under: kids dads boys tv television game show game jeopardy song music fathers fathering fatherhood parents parenting parenthood child children childhood
August 1, 2011  |  2:30pm
Transformers
[Scene: Luke, age 6, and I are watching 80’s Transformers cartoons]
Luke: “So Transformers were around when you were a kid?”
Me: “Yeah.”
Luke: “I thought everything was still in black and white back then.”
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Filed under: transformers cartoons 80s eighties kids dads fathers fathering fatherhood parents parenting parenthood child children childhood boys TV television black and white
July 4, 2011  |  12:27am
Why do we have news?
[Scene: Luke, age 6, had recently watched television with a relative]
Luke: "Dad, why do we have news?"
Me: "What do you mean?"
Luke: "Why do we have news on the TV? Like, why does anyone watch it? Why do they make it? It's always bad news. People dying, houses burning down, bad people doing bad stuff, things like that."
Me: "Well, a lot of people like hearing bad news, as long as it's not happening to them. It's kind of interesting in a way. And the news not _all_ bad, right? They report on sports and scientific discoveries, for example."
Luke: "Yeah, but why can't it be more like the newspaper? At least the newspaper has comics, and talks about things going on around town. You know, stuff kids might like."
Me: "It's a different way of communicating. All the words in the paper can't fit onto the television, at least not in the same way. The same TV channel that has news probably also has comics, just not at the same time."
Luke: "Whatever. I just think TV news is stupid."
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Filed under: andimthedad boys broadcast communications dads fathers journalism kids media news newspaper stupid television tv parents parenting parenthood child children childhood