Is A Green Thumb Needed To Raise Kids?

Mothers' physical nurturing causes the brain to release oxytocin

, the hormone which promotes attachment and suppresses stress. In a study at Wisconsin University/Madison 61 girls, ages 7-12, had their stress levels measured after public speaking. Then they were divided into 3 groups. One group received physical and verbal comfort from their mothers, one group received verbal comfort only via telephone and one group received no comfort. The study showed receiving verbal comfort provided children with the same amount of stress reduction as physical and verbal comfort combined - giving new meaning to the phrase "mother tongue".

Forty-eight percent of mothers and fathers "friend" their children on Facebook. A Retrevo survey of approximately 1,000 U.S. adults found that parents want to know more about their children through technology and have definite opinions how technology should be used. For example, 12% of parents banned social networking as a punishment. Twenty-nine percent banned using mobile phones or texting at the table - 36% if the children were teenagers. In fact, 92% thought children under 12 shouldn't have Facebook accounts - which means 8% of parents could face it.

Unfortunately, many parents don't face the fact that television time negatively affects children. In a study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, researchers followed 1,300 children for 7 years, measuring how much television they watched and questioning their parents and teachers. Each additional hour of television at age two-and-a-half resulted in 7% decrease in classroom attention, 6% decrease in math achievement and 10% increase in bullying by peers. Each additional hour also resulted in 9% decrease in physical activity, 9% increase in soda, 10% increase in snacks and 5% increase in body mass index. It seems television can turn children into couch potato - puffs.

Couch potato puffs can become overweight children and overweight children - even those with strong social and scholastic skills - are bullied. A study in the journal Pediatrics included 800 children from 10 cities. When the children were in third, fifth and sixth grades, researchers surveyed the teachers, mothers and children about being bullied. The adults were also surveyed about the children's social skills. After comparing the responses to the children's body mass index, overweight children were 13% likelier to be bullied and obese children were 65% likelier. Some children are bullied because of being poor or scholastically challenged, but overweight children are "weighed down" by bullying.

by: Knight Pierce Hirst

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