How to Parent

Over fall break, I got together with a high school friend to catch up and do some homework together. While I was reading the articles for this class, I mentioned to her interesting bits from the reading. Among them was the idea that the effect of television on overweight and obesity was related to more than just exercise and snacking; it also had to do with advertising and brand loyalty.

Her response? “Twenty years from now, my kids are only going to be allowed to watch Netflix. No cable!” This no-advertisement television was her answer rather than the idea of actually cutting back on hours of television watched.

I think her response is really important in relation to the Lynch article, which discusses how parents choose strategies for getting their kids to eat healthy food (online parenting sites, frequently). Often times, we take little bits of research out of context (the Leahy study, which has been distorted to promote the disguising of vegetables) and take them as the whole picture when deciding how to choose parenting techniques. In my friend’s case, while Netflix might be better than cable TV with a lot of ads, her quick conclusion failed to take into account that a lot of the brand loyalty that is developed depends on the use of TV show characters on packaging (think Spongebob macaroni and cheese), so her kids, presumably still exposed to fun characters such as Dora the Explorer, will still see those characters show up at fast food restaurants and certain foods in the grocery store. Nor did she question the basic assumption that kids should be watching TV in the first place.

So how can we prevent parents and others from taking bits of research out of context? Look at any Yahoo News article about food, and it will invariably have cited one part of one study to make generalized claims about what to eat or how to get your kids to eat something already recognized as good. What could be a more effective way of getting information out to parents? And how do we make sure that people know that many online news articles aren’t telling the whole story?