A friend forwarded me this crazy article on time.com (http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650352,00.html) on kids watching the popular Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby DVDs. In brief, according to a study conducted by University of Washington researchers, babies exposed to the DVDs don't grow smarter than infants not exposed to the DVDs. In fact, they show LESS language development than them.
This would be the moment I would pat myself on the back. I never bought into the hype that watching TV -- any kind of TV -- would make Raina smarter. Instead, we did a lot of talking and playing together -- with a heavy emphasis on music and singing.
Not to boast or anything, but Raina's verbal and vocabulary development has always been far ahead of her peers, and I totally believe it's because of the one-on-one interaction.
Anyhoo, so there I was, getting ready for the back pat with a smug smile forming on my face. Then my mouth fell open. As I continued to read, the article mentioned that the researchers found 40% of infants 3 months and younger REGULARLY watched DVDs, videos or TV. There's more: almost 90% of kids upto 2 years of age spent TWO OR THREE HOURS in front of the television every single day.
Unbefuckinglievable. Excuse the language, but that's pretty dang close to parental negligence. I mean, why have kids if you are going to plop them in front of the TV? I know mommies need to get things done, and sometimes, the TV can be a convenient babysitter, but TWO HOURS EVERY DAY? That's just nuts, people!
11 comments:
No 'brainy DVDs' for my children too!.So your post is sure reassuring. :) Earlier, I used to plan on buying the Einstein series DVDs but somehow felt books were always a better option and stuck to it.
All around us people ignore statistics all the time. Look at people polluting the environment, plastic-consumers, smokers...the list goes on. But such negligence with our kids is really insane. It's going to lead to a weird, braindead generation that can only talk about TV. I'm going to quote (probably paraphrasing here) Bill Watterson via Calvin's dad, who insists, 'Don't watch TV, play outside. This way you'll have memories of something real you DID than of artificial things you watched.'
big pat on the back for you... please pat mine while you are at it!!!
I'm so with you on this, muser.
am guilty of being a fan of baby einstein products myself but not of their DVDs.
i'm with you about parents & family members being the best interactive tool a baby/toddler can have in the formative years.
hubby and i took our first step in this direction by moving the TV to the guest BR. we hope to keep it that way for the next couple of years at least.
books and music people...i cannot emphasize more on these two valuable learning tools -- besides mom and dad, of course!
hehe, I've used Barney as a babysitter and Dora now for my munchkin, but it's been 1 episode at a time. It's hard NOT to succumb based on the mom's stress and pressurehandling guage, but 2 hours does seem ridiculous. :)
*pat pat*
You guys rock! After blogging about this I was thinking that oops, that was a pretty judgmental post and I'm going to get tons of mean comments from mommies and daddies whose kids have been documented to grow smarter with these DVDs. Or from parents who have plopped their kids before the TV just to get a few moments of sanity (Clarification: This post isn't about you. It's the two hours that has me freaked out.) Instead, feel vindicated. Thanks!
My baby is seven and half months old and already he shows a marked fascination for television. I've stopped watching tv when he's around - I definitely feel reading to kids is way better than any educational dvd can ever be. Great post, muser!
Thanks, Mystic Margarita! I am a big fan of reading too.
My days of watching the idiot box while feeding Baby M are coming to a close too :( Yesterday she turned her head towards the darn box and watched intently. **sigh** There goes my already limited entertainment.
GTN/Cee Kay: Just another thing to emotionally blackmail your future teenage kid about in the "After All I've Done For You" mode :)
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