Monthly Archives: May 2014
Frozen
I have learned a new trick. On a busy day of seeing patients it is easy to run from exam room to office desk and off to the next exam room at a frenzied pace. The charts, the orders even the patients can blur a bit. It is not a way to move through my day.
Now before entering the next exam room, I put my hand on the doorknob and pause. I take a moment to notice how I feel, take a deep breath and let it go. I let go of what ever might be distracting me from what is behind the door. Then I turn the handle and focus more fully on the person inside waiting to see me.
One day last week when I opened the door there was some fun waiting for me. A boy had a wart that needed freezing with liquid nitrogen. It is a simple procedure that he had done before and he and I settled in to chat while I worked. Also in the room was his much younger sister - maybe five years old. This girl was wearing a dress and holding a rose. She was smiling and excitedly hopping from foot to foot but - not saying a word obviously trying hard to be polite and wait for me to finish up.
Now, this clinic day was as busy a day as could be. But when my wart treatment was done and the bouncy little sister finally got her turn to talk, I listened. She said:
Please freeze it.
And smash it!
And so we did. I dipped her rose in the liquid nitrogen and handed it to her. With great joyful enthusiasm she smashed that rose into tiny fragrant icy pieces!
Then with wide smiles we said goodbye. She and her brother got their stickers. I went on, placed my hand on the next door knob and fully focused, went to the next patient.
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Media and Your Teen: Ask Them to Decide
The American Academy of Pediatrics has clear words for parents seeking advice about screen time limits for children. No screen time for kids under 2 and no more that 2 hours a day for kids over 2. Less is better and content matters.
While I find these guidelines challenging in my office and in my home, my mother would have had no trouble enforcing these guidelines with me - for most of my childhood we did not have a television. I remember mornings in junior high school as being rough. Not only those mornings too early, cold (N.Y. State in winter is COLD) but once I made it to school everyone around me was discussing last night’s episode of this or that show. I tried to look casual and preoccupied while they sounded so…. cool.
As a Pediatrician, I understand the social power that being up to date with the latest show, game or video has. Being connected on each of the latest social media tools be they Instagram, Vine or Snapchat, matters on today’s Monday mornings.
However, I want my teens and my teen patients to turn off their screens more. I know that doing so will broaden their horizons and shrink their waistlines. They also on some level, get this. It is though, hard to translate advice and understanding into action. Teens especially do not like to accept rules made for them without their input and buy in. At my house I always begin change with a discussion around the dinner table. It is a perfect chance to ask and listen.
It is perhaps ironic that I found some words to inspire teens to turn off their screens from a recent episode of Grey’s Anatomy. They have just the right touch of inspirational simplicity that appeals to the Pinterest set:
Decide .
We are all going to die. We don’t get to decide where or when.
But we do get to decide how we are going to live. So do it.
Decide.
Is this the life you want to live? Is this the person you want to love?
Is this the best you can be? Can you be stronger, kinder, more compassionate?
Decide.
Breathe in, breathe out and decide.
When you put it this way, few kids would choose to spend their time in front of a screen. And definitely not the average of seven hours a day on entertainment media, including televisions, computers, phones and other electronic devices that our kids are currently spending. Tonight at dinner, ask your kids to Decide. And then come up with a plan together for media use in your home.
For ideas about how to decrease your family’s media use read this blog post by Corinn Cross, MD or see the AAP parent’s web page healthychildren.org .
