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I’m spending a lot of time around American kids this summer. We’re hanging out at a campground in southern Massachusetts while Daddy works a contract for a few months and every week provides a new crop of families to observe, kids to play with, and opportunities to make friends, learn and grow.

It’s a sociology experiment of sorts.

We’ve met a few amazing families with really great kids. And we’ve met some others. Of course any cross section of society is made up of a selection of individuals, and individuals are, well, individual. Even so, some generalizations can be made and I’ve made one as I’ve held down my beach chair and kept my kids from drowning: (more…)

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My husband e-mailed me a link to an article that was shocking. It pointed to some research done a few years ago that is showing that children in the UK are becoming so addicted to TV and video games that they are forgetting their own names. Crazy sounding, I know.

Here is the link to the article if you’d like to read it for yourself and do some more research.

It reminded me of a series of conversations I’ve had over the years with other moms about television and all of its supposed benefits for young children (in spite of what the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends). It has prompted me to consider, once again, the role of media in my children’s lives and remind myself of all of the OTHER things we can do together as a family!

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