Sometimes you find the truth in a simple form in a most unexpected place. Today’s Mother Goose and Grimm is once such jewel.
I have always loved this strip; it is funny without being mean and contains some very good simple lessons from time to time.
I firmly believe that we are over medicating our children, we should encourage more exercise, more adult supervision and structured activities. It is no wonder that kids are acting up when they are set in front of a TV for 6 hours a day and only see their parents for a few hours a night and maybe double that on the weekends. The medications dull the sences and have harmful side effects.
Exercise has been proven to help children that have been labeled with ADD or ADHD
"Current fitness and exercise research makes a correlation between an active lifestyle and positive changes in brain chemistry, brain growth and development. Studies also show that exercise has a positive affect on curbing negative behaviors common in the ADHD child."
A simple google search will provide 649,00 results on the benefits for exercise for children but yet Blue Cross/Blue Shield reports that from 1999 to 2003 there has been an 83% increase of prescriptions for ADD/ADHD drugs. In 2003 alone there were 85,626 prescriptions filled.
Are we as a nation simply medicating our kids because it is easier than taking the time to get involved with them? If we are, who is at fault? Parents should shoulder some of the blame. It is too easy to buy them play stations® and computers then to go bike riding, or to a park to just get moving with them. Schools should be held somewhat responsible for the lack of activity. Many Districts have cut back on physical education programs for a verity of reasons. The Government should take a small amount of responsibility and should fund more phys ed programs.
Ultimately it should fall to the parents to ensure that their kids exercise. They themselves should take the time to sit down and do a little research into what would help their kids and implement it. Establishing good exercise patterns now will only benefit their children the rest of their lives. But then again, if parents did that, the might not find out who was voted off lastnight…
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