Use Travel to Connect, Not Ignore

WebMD has an article with some advice on travelling with kids.  Most of it is pretty standard advice: bring new toys and books for long car trips; if you're flying, have your child drink something during take-off and landing to equalize ear pressure; and stay relaxed and keep your expectations on par with you children's ages and abilities.

All good advice.  The only thing in the article I really object to is the idea of giving your kid Benadryl on a long flight to 'help them sleep.'  Let's call a spade a spade here, folks: that is drugging your child.  Not right.  I have to say, that's also pretty disturbing advice to be written by a medical doctor.

Anyway, my suggestion to families this year for spring break: leave the technology at home.

Kids and the Internet: Please Respond

I was paging through some magazines yesterday and I came across two separate references to negative affects of the internet on children.  The first asserted that too many "gadgets" in the classroom have led to kids not having any manners; the second, from a teacher, claimed that because of internet and TV, children don't get enough practice in resolving their own conflicts and end up tattling to the teacher.

Now hold on just a minute.  I'll be the first to stand up and say that the prospect of raising children in a time of such rapid technological change is terrifying.  We don't yet know all the effects that growing up with internet and TV may have; we can be fairly certain that increased obesity is one of them.  But that's not my point here.  You can't just hop on the technology-blaming bandwagon to explain away childish behaviors.