Teaching Moment

When my daughter and I watch television together, I like to find teaching moments. She is interested in just about anything that comes across the t.v. and today we were watching the Food Network. I started telling her about healthy food options that will help her grow stronger and her parents to live longer (most children are very egotistical and I try to capitalize on that). She’s only half paying attention, I think, when a weight loss commercial came on. Suddenly she wants to know how to lose fat and be skinny.

Oh, geez, I think. I don’t want to give the poor girl a complex. The commercial, of course, equated weight loss with good health. And that’s completely true for those that are dangerously overweight. Not so much for a 5 year-old girl. So, our conversation turned from growing strong to how “skinny” is a healthy “skinny”. I’m a little overweight and her dad is getting there too. She’s not. I decided to explain what some of the pills can do to her heart if she were to take them and what being overweight does to her heart. That lead to a discussion on how to keep her heart healthy.

Of course, I didn’t get technical. I spoke in very basic terms. I was just annoyed because here I was trying to teach her one thing and having to go a whole other direction due to the intrusion of the very instrument I was using to teach her. Funny.

Some people will say that I shouldn’t be using the television to teach my daughter and to them I stick out my tongue (yes, that’s childish). When we watch t.v. together I’m there to explain things to her. I hold her hand and try to make sure nothing is too much for her. We don’t watch my “sinful pleasures” together. And I answer every question honestly. We watch a lot of Food Network, HGTV, The History Channel and things like that. Boring to other people, maybe, but not to us. She’s mostly interested in the commercials, which makes me see them in a whole new light.

Many that I’ve thought previously were harmless are now irritating to me. Looking at them through my daughter’s eyes have enlightened and saddened me. Luckily, I’m always up for a challenge and I’ll always find a teaching moment.

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