The Dangers of Children and Screen Time
Today’s parents are faced with decisions to make over how much time their children spend in front of a screen. “Screen time” is a term used for activities done in front of a screen like watching videos on a tablet, working on a computer, watching TV or playing video games. Computers can help kids with their schoolwork because of easy access to research and the ability to type reports and essays. Surfing the internet, spending too much time on Facebook or watching YouTube videos, however, are considered to be forms of unhealthy screen time in big doses. Parents should also understand that videos aimed at very young children do not improve their development; children need learning interaction to come from a person.
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Is Child Obesity Child Abuse?
Child obesity is an epidemic in the United States. Today, doctors are treating obese children for medical conditions once only seen in the adult population such as type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, sleep apnea and more. In addition to health problems, child obesity can lead to depression and even lower math and reading scores (Mitgang, 2011).
Over the last couple of decades, many have wondered what can be done to mitigate the rising rates of child obesity. Some have proposed removing severely obese children from their parents’ custody (Murtagh & Ludwig, 2011). But is an obese child being abused and is removing them from their home really what is best for the children?
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Know these Top School Safety Tips
Unintentional injuries are the leading of death for children in the United States. A substantial portion of these accidents occur in and around the child’s school. It makes sense; more than 53 million children attend school and they spend almost a quarter of their day on school property. Parents don’t have a lot of control over preventing a school injury since their children are under alternate supervision.
Top School Safety Tips
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Modern School Playground Rules
Today’s kids are having a very different school playground experience than their parents and grandparents. Concerns over injuries and general safety have prompted schools to eliminate many traditional games from the school yard, such as tag and red rover and stop actions like hanging upside down on the monkey bars and jumping off of swings. These new playground rules are meant to keep kids safer and keep the school out of trouble.
Modern school playground rules by type of equipment
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The New Generation’s School Playground Safety Rules
Many of the school playground games that parents remember playing as kids are no longer allowed: dodge ball, tag, red rover and even activities like hanging upside down or sitting on top of the monkey bars, jumping off of swings and climbing up or sliding head first down the slide. We are in a new era where school playground safety concerns over child injuries from falls and collisions, fights and other problems have led to strict safety rules that eliminate some traditional childhood games and activities.
Read MoreSchool Bus Safety Tips
As far as transportation goes, school buses are the safest mode by far. School buses have a rate of 0.2 deaths per 100 million miles traveled; the rate of deaths in automobiles is eight times higher. Put another way, between 1994 and 2004, 71 school bus passengers died in crashes compared to 31,693 people killed in crashed in cars and light trucks in 2004 alone.
Still, it doesn’t hurt to look at how we might prevent even more personal injuries by teaching our children to use school bus safety tips.