I just read an article about this commercial trying to get parents to convince children to get moving more. And the basis of the commercial involved the mother lieing to the child. It made a good point about how today's society expects parents to constantly entertain children 24/7. The writer questions why more parents don't let their children learn to entertain themselves like we did as children?
My mother was complaining about a commercial she saw the other day on the cartoon network urging children to stop watching cartoons and get outside to play. How sad is that? When I was a child you couldn't keep me in on a nice day.
So what's your take on it? How did you spend your childhood? How do you encourage your children to play?
here is the link to the story
http://www.parentdish.com/2011/03/2...?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl4|sec3_lnk1|207949
here is the story itself in case you can't get it to load though the link also has the clip with the commercial on it
"This 'Let's Move!' Ad Isn't Going to Get Kids Moving
by Lenore Skenazy (Subscribe to Lenore Skenazy's posts)
Mar 29th 2011 11:00AM
Filed under: Media, Opinions
"Let's Move!" has an ad campaign running that should be called "Let's Lie!"
A mom is in the kitchen when her daughter, age about 11, calls down from the stairway, "Can I have a dollar?" The mom sees her wallet right there on the counter next to her, but smiles to herself and yells to her kid to look upstairs. Then downstairs. Then up in another bedroom. Then down in the dining room. Then through all of the closets upstairs and down until finally the girl comes into the kitchen and sees the wallet has been sitting there the whole time.
In the ad, it's a cute moment. In real life, I just don't know a lot of kids who'd grin, "Thanks for the wild goose chase, Mom! I love being tricked!"
But, amazingly, lying to your kids isn't even the most galling thing about this ad. What's worse is the idea that it is up to us parents to come up with endless clever ways to get our kids moving. Let's see ... this little ruse was good for maybe a minute's worth of mild exercise? Now all a mom has to do is come up with another 59 pointless tasks and her kid will have an hour's worth of cardio. (And a lifetime's worth of therapy material.)
"Mom was here!" the ad exults, but that's exactly the problem. Why is Mom expected to come up with activities for a girl who is clearly old enough to entertain herself? Why doesn't she just tell her to go outside and play? It worked for our moms! But the new idea of a "good" mother is one who is always involved. A constant companion. Some might say: a helicopter.
That's ironic because one of the reasons kids are so sedentary -- and chubby -- is that we keep them glued to our sides. If we don't let them ride their bikes around the nabe, or walk to school, or play in the park, of course they are going to be stuck inside. And we are stuck trying to prod them off the couch.
"Let's Move!" seems to believe our kids are unsafe having an old-fashioned childhood, even though FBI stats show there is less crime today than when we were kids running around in the '70s and '80s.
Until the campaign embraces the idea that kids can get moving on their own, they won't. They'll get fat and we'll feel guilty.
Great."
My mother was complaining about a commercial she saw the other day on the cartoon network urging children to stop watching cartoons and get outside to play. How sad is that? When I was a child you couldn't keep me in on a nice day.
So what's your take on it? How did you spend your childhood? How do you encourage your children to play?
here is the link to the story
http://www.parentdish.com/2011/03/2...?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl4|sec3_lnk1|207949
here is the story itself in case you can't get it to load though the link also has the clip with the commercial on it
"This 'Let's Move!' Ad Isn't Going to Get Kids Moving
by Lenore Skenazy (Subscribe to Lenore Skenazy's posts)
Mar 29th 2011 11:00AM
Filed under: Media, Opinions
"Let's Move!" has an ad campaign running that should be called "Let's Lie!"
A mom is in the kitchen when her daughter, age about 11, calls down from the stairway, "Can I have a dollar?" The mom sees her wallet right there on the counter next to her, but smiles to herself and yells to her kid to look upstairs. Then downstairs. Then up in another bedroom. Then down in the dining room. Then through all of the closets upstairs and down until finally the girl comes into the kitchen and sees the wallet has been sitting there the whole time.
In the ad, it's a cute moment. In real life, I just don't know a lot of kids who'd grin, "Thanks for the wild goose chase, Mom! I love being tricked!"
But, amazingly, lying to your kids isn't even the most galling thing about this ad. What's worse is the idea that it is up to us parents to come up with endless clever ways to get our kids moving. Let's see ... this little ruse was good for maybe a minute's worth of mild exercise? Now all a mom has to do is come up with another 59 pointless tasks and her kid will have an hour's worth of cardio. (And a lifetime's worth of therapy material.)
"Mom was here!" the ad exults, but that's exactly the problem. Why is Mom expected to come up with activities for a girl who is clearly old enough to entertain herself? Why doesn't she just tell her to go outside and play? It worked for our moms! But the new idea of a "good" mother is one who is always involved. A constant companion. Some might say: a helicopter.
That's ironic because one of the reasons kids are so sedentary -- and chubby -- is that we keep them glued to our sides. If we don't let them ride their bikes around the nabe, or walk to school, or play in the park, of course they are going to be stuck inside. And we are stuck trying to prod them off the couch.
"Let's Move!" seems to believe our kids are unsafe having an old-fashioned childhood, even though FBI stats show there is less crime today than when we were kids running around in the '70s and '80s.
Until the campaign embraces the idea that kids can get moving on their own, they won't. They'll get fat and we'll feel guilty.
Great."
