Parenting Success By Alvah Parker

At a Women’s Bar Association lunch one of attorneys ordered a diet soda and then explained to rest of us that her children were doing a “healthy living” program so she stopped buying diet soda to drink at home. She said having this diet soda was a real treat for her.

She then confided in us that real difficulty her kids were having with their “healthy living” was eating 5 fruits and vegetables a day. The topic for day was marketing and it seemed to me that she had just displayed a couple of marketing principles even though topic hadn’t come up yet!

First of all woman was trying very hard to model to her children behavior she was encouraging. As a child I always pointed out to my mother when her actions did not reflect her directives – she told me not to smoke for example. Her response was “Do as I say not as I do.” Sorry Mom it doesn’t work. It just made me all more curious about smoking. I did try it but fortunately for me I didn’t like it.

No matter what your profession or business if you don’t use your product or service you are not a model of what you offer. A lawyer who doesn’t have a will, doesn’t pay taxes, or “signs’ a business agreement with a handshake doesn’t advertise her own service very well.

It's Saturday afternoon and your best friend since kindergarten calls and asks to meet with you over coffee. She has some exciting news, and she can't wait to share it. "Wait until "Friends" is over," you reply.

Sound familiar? If so, you may be addicted to your TV. TV has some funny effects on brain. Most people are not aware of these effects. However, effects of TV on brain are similar to effects of addictive drugs. The good news is, once you become aware of these effects, you can begin to reduce TV's addictive hold.

TV=Relaxation

Everyone knows TV can be very relaxing. TV has ability to completely shut out rest of our crazy world. All world's problems vanish as you are wrapped in a cozy TV Neverland. The relaxation is almost instantaneous. The quickness of relaxation conditions you to associate TV with relaxation. As long as you are watching TV, you feel relaxed.

Unfortunately, this sense of relaxation ends as soon as TV is turned off. The cozy little Neverland disappears. You don't even get benefit of a gradual withdrawal. Poof! Neverland is gone.

With drugs, faster a drug leaves body, more addictive it is. The Scientific American researchers, Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi, who explored TV's addictive qualities, explain:

"A tranquilizer that leaves body rapidly is much more likely to cause dependence than one that leaves body slowly, precisely because user is more aware that drug's effects are wearing off. Similarly, viewers' vague learned sense that they will feel less relaxed if they stop viewing may be a significant factor in not turning set off."

After set is turned off you will feel either worse or same as you did before watching TV. If you were trying to avoid painful feelings, those feelings will surge back when you reenter real world. Worse, if you have acclimated to TV's forced relaxation by watching too much, you may become dependent on TV to relax.

TV "Grabs" and "Holds" your attention