Fatherhood, Skeptically

The TV is on a lot at my house; it's one of the things I worry about a lot. For instance, I'll throw on something I've seen before that is kid friendly (more often than not some Sci-Fi show like Star Trek ) when I'm doing chores. The boys don't usually pay attention, unless the theme songs are playing; they love those. But sometimes they do, and then I worry if I'm setting them up for failure. There's precious little published on the effects of screen time on children; both physically and psychologically. Early this year, a review  was published discussing the effect of screen time on obesity rates in children. As nice as it would have been for this to shed some light on any potential dangers, it seems to only have provided minimal understanding. In light of this I thought it would be worthwhile discuss this paper and to overview the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations concerning screen time. As I alluded to before, the study doesn't ...

I was recently directed to a blog post  via a parent that discussed whether or not mental pharmaceutical treatment was preventing modern prophecy. This interesting perspective is brought by Vironika Tugaleva, a self proclaimed life coach who has authored two self help books. Now, setting aside the obvious differences in Religious beliefs that are likely to come up, the arguments she gives in this post have some clear issues, both factually and, if I'm going to be honest, ethically. Let's dive in to them. Let's begin by looking at the context given for the discussion. An individual named Ken Dickson and his book, detailing his personal experience in dealing with his mental illnesses, that lead her to some interesting conclusions. She makes three observations about Ken's experience: Everyone around him thought he was crazy and dangerous while Ken gained abilities that some people vie to access with daily meditation and ceremony Our current mental health care syst...