perhaps this is actually impossible, but the solution that seems the simplest to me is to ban electronic equipment in the bedroom, or at the very least, ban the use of all such equipment after certain hours, so just as we always advise adults that the bedroom should be reserved only for the twin esses of sleep and sex, we should treat the bedroom similarly for kids (leaving the sex part out of it, of course).
..... Finally, here’s one other piece of health advice on a very important health issue that gets ignored far too often: always, always, always stay alert for signs of mental distress in your kids, by which I mean signs of problems such as eating disorders, schizophrenia, drug use, depression, and alcohol abuse.
..... Unfortunately, there are no easy one-size-fits-all ready-made answers here as to what to look for or even for what to do if you suspect a mental health disorder in your child, but here are three rules I’ve always used that might help a bit:
1) always take notice of behaviour changes in your kids, no matter how insignificant those changes may seem at first, and try to talk to your child about what you think you see (your child will often have quite a different view from yours, of course)
2) never lightly dismiss or flippantly minimize a
teen’s (often over-heated and overy-dramatic)
avowal that he or she is unhappy or depressed or
thinking of doing themselves harm, and
3) most important, no matter how busy you are and no matter how well you think your kids are doing, always try to spend at least some face-time every day with your kids, especially at a theoretically neutral and non-threatening site to the kid, such as the dinner table, because despite what some baby boomer parent-experts have tried to peddle (mostly, I think, to cover their own guilt for their too hectic lives), for me, a bit of “quality time” in between commitments just doesn’t lend itself to the same crucial interaction with kids as just more “being-there” time does.
Dr. Art Hister can be heard on CKNW and other Corus Radio Network stations on House Calls on Saturdays at 10 AM, as well as seen on Global TV news on Saturday mornings at 9:20. |
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