Exposing the Damage: TV and Kids

Written by Mark Brandenburg MA, CPCC


There are millions of young children in this country who are being horribly mistreated by their parents.

These parents aren’t physically abusing their young children, and they may not even know that they’re mistreating them.

The mistreatment?

Millions of kids underrepparttar age of two are watching TV in this country. In fact, according to a study byrepparttar 111108 Kaiser Family Foundation of over 1,000 parents, about 65% of kids under age two are watching TV, and they’re averaging over two hours of watching a day.

They’re watching even thoughrepparttar 111109 American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no TV for kids under age two. They’re watching even though this is a crucial period for their cognitive development, at an age when their brains are still being formed.

Andrepparttar 111110 news for these kids just got worse.

Scientists at Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Seattle who studied over 2,500 children found a link between early TV watching and attention problems at a later age.

Specifically,repparttar 111111 chances of one and three-year-old kids developing attention problems at age seven increased by 10% for every hour of TV watched each day.

The information from these two studies creates a chilling picture of what’s happening to millions of toddlers in this country. It’s unfair, immoral, and unjust, and it needs to be addressed.

13 ways to save your furniture from cat scratching

Written by Petar Petrov


The cats are great pets. They love to play, they love to cuddle when you are watching TV or sleeping, and they purr for no reason other than being near you. But they also love to scratch. Unfortunately,repparttar things they love to scratch are oftenrepparttar 111107 legs of your antique table, your upholstered sofa, or your expensive carpet.

Although many humans do not appreciate when their cats scratching, you have to know that kittens and cats do not scratch to make us angry, they just need to scratch. Scratching is a natural hardwired behavior in cats, just like breathing and purring, and every cat owner must know WHY THE CATS SCRATCH.

Inrepparttar 111108 wild, cats scratch around their immediate environment to signal their presence to other cats and to claimrepparttar 111109 area in question. The marking takes two forms: visual and olfactory. The visual is inrepparttar 111110 form of clawing marks and is so obvious that even we humans can recognise it. The olfactory mark is subtler, involvingrepparttar 111111 release of pheromones. These are substances secreted fromrepparttar 111112 body to be picked up byrepparttar 111113 number ofrepparttar 111114 same species, causing them to alter their behavior.

Scratching has additional function too. It removesrepparttar 111115 nail sheaths, outer layer of dead cells fromrepparttar 111116 claw. You might thing your cat scratches to sharpen her claws, but it more likely it provides her with a form of physical therapy forrepparttar 111117 muscles and tendons of her paws.

There are two groups of target for every cat. The first one is when your cat target one or two areas inrepparttar 111118 home, usually near important territorial areas such as: sleeping area, litter tray, hunting or play areas. The second one is your cat undertake more widespread and destructive scratching in highly visible sites such as: doorways, windows, prominent furnishings - like sofas.

WHAT YOU CAN DO IF YOUR CAT SCRATCHING YOUR FURNITURE?

1. The easiest butrepparttar 111119 most painful method for cat is declawing. Faced with cat scratching problems, many people consider declawing surgery. But many veterinarians believe declawing is a painful and unnecessary surgery and refuse to do it for humane reasons. Instead, they advocate training your cat to use a scratching post.

2. Make sure there are multiple scratching opportunities. Cats often like to scratch after eating and sleeping, so be sure there is something to scratch near where they eat and sleep. A scratching post is an excellent investment for your cat. It will allow her to scratch, stretch and exercise all at once. If you want to provide your cat not only with scratching surface, but and places where she can climb, perch and sleep you should consider cat tree.

3. Coverrepparttar 111120 furniture with something your cat does not like: double sided tape, some plastic or aluminium foil. Some cats dislikerepparttar 111121 feeling and sound of foil, and most cats hate things that stick to their fur. Double-sided sticky tape used in carpet installation works well, but be surerepparttar 111122 tape won’t harm your cat or furniture.

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