Comments (62)

By Mom Unplugged, April 3, 2008 10:39 pm

So have you thought about my proposal? TV-Turnoff Week is April 21-27. Can you and your family turn it off for a week? Would you like to try? If so, then sign up for the Unplug Your Kids TV-Turnoff Week Blog Challenge!

Here’s how it works:

Phase 1 -

1) Write a post about the challenge that sets forth your goals, reasons for joining in, etc. The more people we can reach and get to join in, the more fun and educational it will be! Remember, it is not just about giving up TV, what about the “other screens” in your life? The computer is my personal downfall so I will be concentrating on reducing that.

2) Link to your post in Mr. Linky below (leave a comment too in case Mr. Linky goes haywire, as occasionally happens, and I have to take him off).

3) Steal the Blog Challenge badge and put it in your sidebar, linking to Unplug Your Kids. Let me know if you need help with this step.

Two sizes:

Phase 2 -

Do your best to meet your goals from April 21-27. If you aren’t successful, it’s OK. What is important is to try, and to learn something from the experience.

Phase 3 -

1) After TV-Turnoff Week ends (April 27th is the last day), write a post about how it went: the good, the bad, and the ugly! Sharing experiences helps everyone.

2) I will also write a “How it Went” post and I will put up a new Mr. Linky. Put the link to your “How it Went” post in Mr. Linky (plus comment just in case).

3) On Tuesday, May 6th I will draw a random name from among those who completed the challenge (whether you met your goals or not) and put up their final post. That person will win a $10 Amazon gift certificate.

No blog?

You can join in too. Email me your goals, hopes, and dreams before the TV-Turnoff Week begins ,and I will post them on Unplug Your Kids. At the end, email me your “How it Went” information, and I will post it here too. You will then be entered in the drawing for the gift certificate.

My email for questions or entries: unplugyourkids “at” gmail “dot” youknowwhat.

Comments (0)

By Mom Unplugged, April 2, 2008 9:34 am

Be sure to stop by The Toby Show to read Jonah Lisa’s update on how her “7-Step TV Trap Action Plan” is going. Her 7 step program appears to be successful so far, so head over to her site and take notes if you are trying to cut back your children’s TV viewing time too!

(In case you missed it, here is my original post about Jonah Lisa: Cutting Back TV - “OK, But How?”)

Comments (1)

By Mom Unplugged, April 1, 2008 8:13 pm

URGENT! TIME-SENSITIVE BLOG POST!!

In anticipation of TV-Turnoff Week (April 21st-27th), Diane at dkMommy Spot is giving away a copy of the book Living Outside the Box: TV-Free Families Share Their Secrets by Barbara Brock. Please read Diane’s review of this very interesting-sounding book, which is based on a 1999 study of over 500 TV-free families.

I have heard of the study and the results are quite fascinating. This book is definitely on my “to read” list!

Unfortunately I am so behind with my blogging, emailing, etc. (due to my week away - or perhaps simply due to massive disorganization), that I regret to report that Diane’s giveaway ends tomorrow, April 2, at noon EST. Sorry I didn’t get the word out sooner, but you still have time to hurry over to dkMommy Spot, read her review of this very worthwhile book, and leave a comment to be entered in the drawing.

Good luck!

Comments (1)

By Mom Unplugged, March 28, 2008 9:36 pm

My friend Wishy and I had a good laugh one day when we discovered that a classmate of our daughters was teaching the other children “bad words” by not actually saying the word itself, but by saying it backwards. Wishy’s daughter said to her in hushed tones: “Mom, did you know that “tish” spelled backwards is a bad word?” Further parental inquiry revealed that she knew that “cuff” spelled backwards was bad too.

A recent NPR piece entitled Why Kids Curse, brought this rather amusing memory back to me. Although we wish our children would never learn the “bad words,” it does inevitably happen. Unfortunately when it happens, is commonly sooner rather than later. Many parents seem to have a funny or embarrassing story of a precocious child and inappropriate language. Of course children might pick up bad language at home, but often it is from schoolmates or friends.

The NPR piece relates the funny tale of Yale psychologist Paul Bloom, whose 6 year-old announced one day the words that he had “learned” from overhearing the babysitter on the phone. He and his wife then decided to create an experiment in which they would invent some family swear words to see if their kids picked them up:

“So one of them was ‘flep,’” says Bloom. Whenever someone would bang their foot or hurt their toe, they’d scream “flep” as if it were an obscenity.

The experiment was very short-lived.

“It was a total failure,” says Bloom. “The children looked at us as if we were crazy.”

The reason for this failure? Kids are more influenced by their peers than their parents, according to Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker.

As I am interested in both parenting and linguistics, I found this story to be fascinating from both standpoints. There is more to the piece than what I mention here, so I encourage you to give it a read or a listen if you have a few minutes to spare.

And what on Earth does all this have to do with TV? Well, read on:

A study by the Parents Television Council found that about once an hour children watching popular children’s networks will hear mild curse words such as “stupid,” “loser” and “butt.” The scope and frequency can rise immeasurably with exposure to adult programs and popular music.

That’s the connection!

Link: Why Kids Curse - transcript and audio link (7:07)

(Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Comments (3)

By Mom Unplugged, March 27, 2008 9:06 am

I have been unusually silent this week. We are in Albuquerque for Spring Break and between stomach flu, running errands, and trips to the zoo, the aquarium, and Taos, there has not been much time for blogging!

Of course in Albuquerque there are stores more exciting than our Walmart, and children’s activities more novel than the local playground, but one of the most unusual things (for us) that is in Albuquerque, is television. Amazingly, apart from some early-morning fascination with PBS, the kids don’t seem to care much about watching it. Running around catching bugs in the courtyard is much more in keeping with their usual lifestyle.

I haven’t watched much TV either, however I did happen to catch most of this Today Show segment yesterday morning on “overly-wired” families and the benefits of unplugging. In typical Today Show format it was pretty rapid-fire without a lot of substantive information, but it could be worth a quick look for anyone interested in the subject.

Is Your Family Too Wired?