For quite a while, my son kept asking me for salami. For the love of mike what is that? I am a proper African girl and I have no idea what that looks like, let alone cook it. Thank God for google! I looked up the picture and saw the thing looks like meat. I was happy because a picky-eating child is demanding for meat- a rich source of iron. I decided to give it a try and make an “homemade” salami. I went to our local farmer’s market and bought 5 pounds of red beef, which I rarely do because I prefer white meat. Don’t mind me, I am a doctor both by the books and lifestyle, at least most of the time…lol.
I finally got to the ‘plating stage’. I cut up thin slices of cooked meat similar to what I had seen online, cut up some hot dog pieces (this is a season of hot dog for my son, long story for another day), added ketchup and garnished it with cucumber slides to make appealing to him, as great moms do. I smiled satisfactorily at my “healthy” creation.
Guess what? My son picked up a piece of this special “salami”, took one bite and moved on to the hot dog. I even encouraged him to dip the meat in some ketchup sauce. He said “no mom. this is not salami and that is not how the kids on the TV ate it”.
I said, “Seriously? the TV is source of all my stress? hence forth, I am going to further limit your TV viewing time to so that you don’t getting funny ideas about meals mommy is not used to.” Don’t get me wrong; there is nothing wrong experimenting with foods for kids especially if they will like it. My main point is the impact TV already has on this three old.
I try so hard to keep all screen time under one hour daily as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, for his age.
The academy recommends that for children 2 to 5 years of age, screen time should be limited to one hour per day. For kids ages 6 years and older, parents can determine the restrictions for time spent using screen, as well as monitor the types of digital media their children use.
Babies are most vulnerable to screens. Infants aged 18 months and younger should not be exposed to any digital media ideally.
Take it or leave it, we live in a world of screens.
Whether we admit it or not the electronic media has a powerful influence on kids and we have a responsibility as parents to control it.
We can do something about it now before it becomes a ‘pandemic’ because already it is an ‘epidemic’.