RE: A word about...TV for toddlers Children of allages are constantly learning new things. The first 2 years of life areespecially important in the growth and development of your child's brain.During this time, children need good, positive in

[Guest guest]

Just want to point out as well, Doh, not in defense of television, but

in defense of the way larger families operate, I have been a single stay

at home mom of a very attatchment cloth diapered

breastfed-until-he-weaned-at-almost-three, active momma's boy, so I

remember that living that life and cooking for two is WAAAAy different

from living with five, still a stay at home, home educating attachment

mother of 2.5 kids, you would be really surprised where the comprimises

get made. Beside the fact that having a crawl/walking baby in a hot

kitchen under feet is not very safe, or conducive to getting dinner on

the table in less than one hour, I love Sesame Street, dang it, and if

Solly would rather play with his pirate ship than watch it, I will watch

it alone!! I think daycare impedes brain development far more than a

little blues clues! If you don't have a television than I suggest you

check out a library copy of a Baby Einstein DVD, and watch it at a

friend's, because it is not only very educational but also interactive,

as my 5 year olds know 10 words in Japanese, 4 in Hebrew and the whole

alphabet in Spanish AND French, mostly due to Dora The Explorer and

Muzzy, and Baby Einstein, which include digital flash cards of a set of

images in 12 languages, 4 " concerts " of Mozart or Bach respectively that

do not include any images on the screen and are simply scientifically

proven brain growth stimulators because it is classical music!! They

cannot read yet, so how is this not more beneficial than me holding the

flash cards and saying the words, and playing the music, which I also

do. It is different than a book. Television is a tool, like anything

else, and it can be used benefically whether you want to believe it or

not. Instead of condemning, I would rather talk to some others about

which shows they find to be the best conversation starters, and when is

Baby Einstein coming out with

'Baby Veggie...food with love for babies? " And by the way, why are you

so against TV, but sitting in front of a computer right now? That may

breed some uncomfortable double standards between you and your child in

the future. If you hate TV, that's cool. I had a 'kill your TV' bumper

sticker for a lot of years,and I feel you on your concern about people

plopping their kid in front of it, but I truly do not think there is a

single person on this list breeding a numb television zombie and loving

it, and I resent the implication that any of us who use the television

as a tool are therefore destroying their children's intellectual

promise.

 

- Natalie

 

Doh! [dohdriver]

Tuesday, September 09, 2003 8:40 PM

 

[Guest guest]

" I think daycare impedes brain development far more than a

little blues clues! "

 

 

 

?? I'd love to hear more about this.

 

 

Natalie Yarbrough <natalie wrote:

Just want to point out as well, Doh, not in defense of television, but

in defense of the way larger families operate, I have been a single stay

at home mom of a very attatchment cloth diapered

breastfed-until-he-weaned-at-almost-three, active momma's boy, so I

remember that living that life and cooking for two is WAAAAy different

from living with five, still a stay at home, home educating attachment

mother of 2.5 kids, you would be really surprised where the comprimises

get made. Beside the fact that having a crawl/walking baby in a hot

kitchen under feet is not very safe, or conducive to getting dinner on

the table in less than one hour, I love Sesame Street, dang it, and if

Solly would rather play with his pirate ship than watch it, I will watch

it alone!! I think daycare impedes brain development far more than a

little blues clues! If you don't have a television than I suggest you

check out a library copy of a Baby Einstein DVD, and watch it at a

friend's, because it is not only very educational but also interactive,

as my 5 year olds know 10 words in Japanese, 4 in Hebrew and the whole

alphabet in Spanish AND French, mostly due to Dora The Explorer and

Muzzy, and Baby Einstein, which include digital flash cards of a set of

images in 12 languages, 4 " concerts " of Mozart or Bach respectively that

do not include any images on the screen and are simply scientifically

proven brain growth stimulators because it is classical music!! They

cannot read yet, so how is this not more beneficial than me holding the

flash cards and saying the words, and playing the music, which I also

do. It is different than a book. Television is a tool, like anything

else, and it can be used benefically whether you want to believe it or

not. Instead of condemning, I would rather talk to some others about

which shows they find to be the best conversation starters, and when is

Baby Einstein coming out with

'Baby Veggie...food with love for babies? " And by the way, why are you

so against TV, but sitting in front of a computer right now? That may

breed some uncomfortable double standards between you and your child in

the future. If you hate TV, that's cool. I had a 'kill your TV' bumper

sticker for a lot of years,and I feel you on your concern about people

plopping their kid in front of it, but I truly do not think there is a

single person on this list breeding a numb television zombie and loving

it, and I resent the implication that any of us who use the television

as a tool are therefore destroying their children's intellectual

promise.

 

- Natalie

 

Doh! [dohdriver]

Tuesday, September 09, 2003 8:40 PM

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

> " I think daycare impedes brain development far more than a little blues

 

>clues! "

 

 

 

>?? I'd love to hear more about this.

 

 

 

I suppose I can't say all daycare is unhealthy for children's

intellectual building blocks, I suppose that what I mean to say is that

" day care " , NOT Montessori school or any other pre-K school, but a place

where there are 6 children in a 10'x10' room with one supervising adult

that just revolves them between diaper changes, bottle feeding and

sitting on a carpet with toys all around them zoning to teletubbies, is

certainly less educational than my living room any time of the day. Did

you read the responses from some others on this thread? I have heard

countless tales of children coming home from daycare with nutritional

and behavioral issues, espescially displaying signs of neglect, being

fussy and overly demanding from the seperation anxiety, which causes

neural functions to shut down(IE: how can they learn if they are

screaming?) Thanks to the lovely government in this state I was forced

to put my breastfed 18 month old in day care for a month and go to " job

training " in order to " earn " my welfare payment of $269 a month, which

kept me homeless, because as anyone knows, rent is more than that even

in a cheap motel. Turns out my training was folding plastic bags in the

back of the goodwill building among developmentally diabled people,

averaging $4 an hour, which is illegal, but, oh, it's " government

assistance " so it's alright. The place they had me leaving my son was

alright at first, they talked a good talk, I even discussed all the

special eating concerns I had for my son, a vegetarian who is allergic

to wheat, food coloring and refined sugars, she not only agreed, she

told me about her dietary concerns as an adult with ADD, and assured me

that if I made a list of the things he could have, the cook would see

fit that he would have only those things or foods I provided.

Several times thereafter I showed up early or on a lunch hour to find my

son eating hot dogs, candy, " juice " with food colorings and all sorts of

nastiness, watching teletubbies, or any number of other videos or

tv,which at the time I was extremely against. I confronted the director

and she had the gall to tell me to my face that I had NEVER mentioned to

her that my son had any feeding concerns. Also, they switched which

person was in his room with him for the first three weeks, and no one,

not even the director could remember his name ( Solstice, we call him

Solly) and his art projects came home with " Sal " on them. The worst of

it was when another baby around the same age became violent with the

others; I once watched him smash a large heavy jingle ball toy over a 4

month olds head, and there was no disciplinary action taken at all. He

proceeded to bite my son 9 times in one week. Large deep purple bites

that broke the skin. I have pictures and a police report when I finally

called social services and pulled him out because they would not suspend

the child from the daycare. The state policy here is if a child bites

once, he's out for three days, if the parent can't fix it in that time

and the biting reoccurs that the child is not allowed to come back. All

in all it was a pretty hellish experience, and there are a lot of other

reasons that I am willing to sacrifice what eveer it takes to keep my

child out of day care.

[Guest guest]

I am sorry that you had such a heartwrenchingly horrible experience with a

daycare. And I am aware that there are other daycares out there that are not

ideal settings for developing children. But I would ask that you please refrain

from making judgements about daycares on the whole. There are plenty of great

daycares out there as well, with adequate staffing, breastfeeding savvy,

nutritional snacks, constructive activities, good space, ..... There is a lot of

sensitivity out there on this issue, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one who

was offended by your sweeping judgement.

 

It is easy for parents to be judgemental about other parents, but in a society

that provides so little support for us to begin with, we would do a lot better

to support and listen to eachother.

 

I sincerely hope that you never have to take your child back to such a wretched

sounding place. Working out of the home is emotionally difficult in and of

itself, and that kind of situation can take great stress and create great trauma

easily.

 

I'm sure if I got an art project back with the wrong name, I would raise one

hell of a holy stink, and that wasn't even the worst of what you detailed.

 

I'll stop here, but if you'd like to hear about a positive daycare experience,

I'm always happy to tell about my own.

 

 

Natalie Yarbrough <natalie wrote:

 

 

 

> " I think daycare impedes brain development far more than a little blues

 

>clues! "

 

 

 

>?? I'd love to hear more about this.

 

 

 

I suppose I can't say all daycare is unhealthy for children's

intellectual building blocks, I suppose that what I mean to say is that

" day care " , NOT Montessori school or any other pre-K school, but a place

where there are 6 children in a 10'x10' room with one supervising adult

that just revolves them between diaper changes, bottle feeding and

sitting on a carpet with toys all around them zoning to teletubbies, is

certainly less educational than my living room any time of the day. Did

you read the responses from some others on this thread? I have heard

countless tales of children coming home from daycare with nutritional

and behavioral issues, espescially displaying signs of neglect, being

fussy and overly demanding from the seperation anxiety, which causes

neural functions to shut down(IE: how can they learn if they are

screaming?) Thanks to the lovely government in this state I was forced

to put my breastfed 18 month old in day care for a month and go to " job

training " in order to " earn " my welfare payment of $269 a month, which

kept me homeless, because as anyone knows, rent is more than that even

in a cheap motel. Turns out my training was folding plastic bags in the

back of the goodwill building among developmentally diabled people,

averaging $4 an hour, which is illegal, but, oh, it's " government

assistance " so it's alright. The place they had me leaving my son was

alright at first, they talked a good talk, I even discussed all the

special eating concerns I had for my son, a vegetarian who is allergic

to wheat, food coloring and refined sugars, she not only agreed, she

told me about her dietary concerns as an adult with ADD, and assured me

that if I made a list of the things he could have, the cook would see

fit that he would have only those things or foods I provided.

Several times thereafter I showed up early or on a lunch hour to find my

son eating hot dogs, candy, " juice " with food colorings and all sorts of

nastiness, watching teletubbies, or any number of other videos or

tv,which at the time I was extremely against. I confronted the director

and she had the gall to tell me to my face that I had NEVER mentioned to

her that my son had any feeding concerns. Also, they switched which

person was in his room with him for the first three weeks, and no one,

not even the director could remember his name ( Solstice, we call him

Solly) and his art projects came home with " Sal " on them. The worst of

it was when another baby around the same age became violent with the

others; I once watched him smash a large heavy jingle ball toy over a 4

month olds head, and there was no disciplinary action taken at all. He

proceeded to bite my son 9 times in one week. Large deep purple bites

that broke the skin. I have pictures and a police report when I finally

called social services and pulled him out because they would not suspend

the child from the daycare. The state policy here is if a child bites

once, he's out for three days, if the parent can't fix it in that time

and the biting reoccurs that the child is not allowed to come back. All

in all it was a pretty hellish experience, and there are a lot of other

reasons that I am willing to sacrifice what eveer it takes to keep my

child out of day care.