Items that recently arrived at the blast-proof mailroom at Rosemond World Headquarters:
Good News from California: A mom writes that after her father passed away last year, her 10-year-old daughter began crying every night at bedtime. Within weeks, not only had her crying intensified, but she was afraid to go to bed and unable to go to sleep. Following my advice, Jennifer and her husband told their daughter that my peripatetic friend “The Doctor” diagnosed lack of sleep as the problem and prescribed a significantly early bedtime for two weeks. If the child came out of her room or cried at any time during the two weeks, the two weeks would start over. Mom writes: “We only had to tell her what the plan was for it to work! She never cried again and never came out of her room. Eventually she got back to being able to get herself to sleep fairly soon after going to bed.”
The Inverse Relationship Between Parent Backbones and Child Cell Phones: The other day, someone wrote and asked when a child should receive his or her own cell phone. My answer: “When the child is able to pay for the phone and the monthly phone bills.” I have yet to hear a truly good reason why a child who cannot meet that requirement should have such a device. Parents often tell me the phones are so their kids can call in an emergency. Really? This is apparently not communicated well to those kids, who spend an inordinate amount of time using send such essential text messages to one another as “Whassup?” and “Where RU?” C’mon! Let’s face it, folks. Parents are getting these expensive and completely unessential playthings for their children because they can’t stand the heat from kids who whine that all their friends have them.
Video Game Addiction: In 1988, I proposed that video games were addictive — not figuratively, but literally. The president of Nintendo USA responded, saying I was dead wrong, that video games were harmless and promoted positive family interactions. He must have been playing too many video games. A recent study by researchers at Iowa State University and the National Institute on Media and Family finds that video games are addictive! The study compared symptoms of gambling addiction established by the American Psychiatric Association and behavior of children and youth who play video games and found that close to 10 percent of all children ages 8 to 18 may be addicted to the latter. Since there are actually kids out there whose parents do not allow video game play and a larger number of kids whose parents only allow them to play for a limited time on weekends, one can reasonably assume that the potential for addiction is much higher than is suggested by the 10 percent figure.
Keep those cards and letters coming!
A psychologist, Rosemond answers parents’ questions on his website at www.rosemond.com.
Good News from California: A mom writes that after her father passed away last year, her 10-year-old daughter began crying every night at bedtime. Within weeks, not only had her crying intensified, but she was afraid to go to bed and unable to go to sleep. Following my advice, Jennifer and her husband told their daughter that my peripatetic friend “The Doctor” diagnosed lack of sleep as the problem and prescribed a significantly early bedtime for two weeks. If the child came out of her room or cried at any time during the two weeks, the two weeks would start over. Mom writes: “We only had to tell her what the plan was for it to work! She never cried again and never came out of her room. Eventually she got back to being able to get herself to sleep fairly soon after going to bed.”
The Inverse Relationship Between Parent Backbones and Child Cell Phones: The other day, someone wrote and asked when a child should receive his or her own cell phone. My answer: “When the child is able to pay for the phone and the monthly phone bills.” I have yet to hear a truly good reason why a child who cannot meet that requirement should have such a device. Parents often tell me the phones are so their kids can call in an emergency. Really? This is apparently not communicated well to those kids, who spend an inordinate amount of time using send such essential text messages to one another as “Whassup?” and “Where RU?” C’mon! Let’s face it, folks. Parents are getting these expensive and completely unessential playthings for their children because they can’t stand the heat from kids who whine that all their friends have them.
Video Game Addiction: In 1988, I proposed that video games were addictive — not figuratively, but literally. The president of Nintendo USA responded, saying I was dead wrong, that video games were harmless and promoted positive family interactions. He must have been playing too many video games. A recent study by researchers at Iowa State University and the National Institute on Media and Family finds that video games are addictive! The study compared symptoms of gambling addiction established by the American Psychiatric Association and behavior of children and youth who play video games and found that close to 10 percent of all children ages 8 to 18 may be addicted to the latter. Since there are actually kids out there whose parents do not allow video game play and a larger number of kids whose parents only allow them to play for a limited time on weekends, one can reasonably assume that the potential for addiction is much higher than is suggested by the 10 percent figure.
Keep those cards and letters coming!
A psychologist, Rosemond answers parents’ questions on his website at www.rosemond.com.