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Text Box: We decided as a family, one January during goal-setting season, to go off chocolate for one year. The kids could each earn $100 for reaching this goal, and they were enthusiastic about it! Then, my husband decided to add another challenge for an additional $100 dollars – go off TV for the year! “Wow!” I thought. “That will be harder than the chocolate deprivation.” But we decided to go for it. No chocolate or TV for one year, but we would allow the kids to watch one movie on the weekends. So began the months of trying to figure out what to do besides watch TV. It was especially challenging for our four-year-old son who was used to watching hours of Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers and other PBS kids shows. He would follow me around saying, “There’s nothing to do” (I know you can imagine the whine in his voice as he said this.) I encouraged him to go and play and do other things, but mostly he followed me around. I thought I was going to go crazy. But then after about three months I began to see a change in him. He started to play with his two-year-old brother. He began to do art projects and to be creative. He was able to think of things to do all by himself. I watched an incredible transformation in this son of mine as he changed from a very difficult child (that’s probably why I let him watch so much TV) to a happy, creative, reasonable boy. The change in our other children was apparent as well. They read more books, played outside more, and learned how to think for themselves. At the end of the year, my husband and I decided the changes in our home were so positive that we had no desire to go back to watching TV. (It turned out that going without chocolate was much more difficult for me than going without TV!) That was nearly fourteen years ago, and we still have the TV off. A little while after this experience I was reading a parenting book, John Rosemond’s Six-Point Plan For Raising Happy, Healthy Children. It states, “Your child’s preschool years are

Text Box: among the most important years of his life. They comprise that period during which the young child is discovering, developing, and strengthening the skills she will need to become a creative, competent person. Regardless of the program, television-watching inhibits the development of initiative, curiosity, resourcefulness, creativity, motivation, imagination, reasoning and problem solving skills, communication skills, social skills, fine and gross-motor skills, and eye-hand coordination. Furthermore, television-watching interferes significantly with the development of a long attention span because the picture on a TV screen changes, on the average, about every three to four seconds…The preschool child’s competency skills emerge and begin developing through exercise. During the formative years, play is the natural form this exercise takes. Every hour, therefore, that a preschool child spends watching television is an hour of that child’s potential being wasted.” This rang true to me because of our experience with our family. (I also believe it applies to video and computer games.) I have also been concerned over the years, along with the amount of time in front of the screen, about the content (as I’m sure most of you are) of television, movies, video games and the Internet. Sure there are lots of good things out there, but if we want to be the primary teachers of morals to our children, then we need to make sure they spend more time with us and less with the media. In a recent article in Time, a study was cited that tells about the modern day family and all of the gadgets and media that occupy our time and attention. One of the things the team of observers noticed was what happens at the end of the day when a working parent comes home. It states, “We saw that when the working parent comes through the door, the other spouse and the kids are so absorbed by what they are doing that they don’t give the arriving parent the time of day. The returning parent, generally the father, was greeted only about a third of the time,

Text Box: Newsletter

If I Could Go Back...	2
Dinnertime Helps	3
Logan Mini Conference	3
Mother Mentoring	4
Interfaith Devotional	4
Raising Resilient Children	5
Nominate MOY 2008	6
Shelly’s Health and Wellness	7

2007-2008 Calendar:

October 20 Logan Mini-Conference

October 28-Nov 4 White Ribbon WRAP Campaign

November 18 Interfaith Devotional – Ogden

November 19 National Day of Mothers Praying

January 15 MOY and YM Portfolios Due

February 1 Luncheon Honoring MOY &YM Candidates

March 1 State Convention

April 23-26 National Convention

Text Box: usually with a perfunctory ‘Hi.’ About half the time the kids ignored him or didn’t stop what they were doing, multitasking and monitoring their various electronic gadgets. We also saw how difficult it was for parents to penetrate the child’s universe. We have so many videotapes of parents actually backing away, retreating from kids who are absorbed by whatever they’re doing.” I would encourage each mother to take a look at the amount of influence and the time the media takes in her home (me included – I now have teenagers who love to IM and text), and do whatever it takes to bring the family together - mealtimes, games, reading together, anything that promotes an environment of developing relationships and love. It may not be turning off the TV for a year, but defining limits and enforcing them will create a safe harbor for our children, where they can be taught and loved. At the recent Provo mini-conference, Kim VanDyke spoke about creating a safe place for children in our homes by giving them limits and rules and a purpose behind those rules. They will be happier and safer with limits and with knowing they are loved by their parents, parents who are willing to take a stand and make a difference in their children’s lives. May each of you be blessed and empowered in your role as a mother!

President’s Message

By Annelle Doxey