Are Movies Influencing Your Child's Behavior

Few movies give out really good lessons on behaviour, civic sense or morality. However, some movies can influence child’s behaviour negatively. Read on to learn more about influence of movies on child’s behaviour.

Most movies that come out today are larger than life and are stereotyped or copies of each other. There are of course exceptions. Most parents do not think much before letting their child watch movies, as everybody needs some form of entertainment. But movies could be putting the wrong ideas in your child’s head and making him behave in odd ways. Here is how you can counter this behaviour.

How to Find Out if Movies are Influencing your Child? 

Let us have a look at few points which can help you to find out if movies are really influencing your child.

Focus on Wrong Things in Life

Does your child focus on the wrong things in life? Does he spend too much time in front of the mirror? Does he ask for too much pocket money? Is he obsessing over some girl in his class? Does he think smoking, drugs or alcohol is ‘cool’? Then maybe he is taking movies way too seriously. A heart-to-heart talk will help you decide if he is actually influenced by some movie he recently saw.

Unstable Behavior  

Children who are heavily influenced by movies tend to be distracted with studies, peculiar in social situations and emotionally unstable. If he is into the run-of-the-mill pop culture movies that only tell the story of a rich boy who gets the popular girl in school, then maybe you need to bring him back to reality. Children often get captivated by what they see in the movies and try to emulate the characters. Clothing could be another indication that the movies are wrongly influencing your child.
Studies show that most children in their pre-teen and teenage years believe what they see in the movies to be true. You need to remind your child that these are actors who are paid to perform and enact stories filled with dreams and emotions that the masses wish to see on celluloid.

Increased Aggressiveness in Behavior

Most aggressive children are fans of action movies. Action movies are also a big reason for teenagers driving rashly nowadays. If you catch your teenager driving rashly, you need to explain to him why this is only a temporary thrill and that it could result in accidents. Explain to him how movie sequences are just well choreographed and well-shot, giving it that extra glamour. Though your child will already know this, it is important that you compare real-life situations to reel ones so that he understands the difference.

Supervising What Your Child Watches 

Many parents today have realised that supervising what your child watches on TV is an effective way of controlling his influences. If he has a favourite TV show, watch it a few times with him to make sure that the show does not give out the wrong message. If it does, explain to him why the message is wrong and does not apply in real life. For example, movies can give a lot of wrong messages about respecting women, sex, love, work ethics, drugs and alcohol. You can easily stop these effects by talking to your child.

Check if the movies he watches are appropriate for his age. If they come with adult ratings, then insist that he may not watch the movie any time soon. Also, if you feel your son is watching the wrong sort of movies, it may be time to take matters into your own hands. Tell him what sort of ideas he should take back from a movie experience.

These are some great tips to make sure your child is not influenced by the movies. So until the movie makers get more responsible and give out healthy messages in all their movies, it is up to you parents to ensure your child remains unaffected!

8 Tips to Help Your Child Fall Asleep

You are sleep-deprived and tired with your daily work schedule, but your child just refuses to go to sleep. What should you do? Read on to learn a few tricks that can help you make your child sleep well all through the night.

If you have a small kid you must be well aware of the problems you have to face at night when you want to take rest and sleep well. Getting your child adjusted to a bedtime routine is also a very difficult task, but is one that you need to accomplish as soon as possible. After all, the benefits of good sleep are many. There are some tricks that you can try to make your child fall asleep thereby allowing you to get proper rest and sleep.

Help your Child fall Asleep with the following 8 Tips:

Follow a bedtime routine – You can start this right from the time your child is few months old. The sooner you start making him sleep at a fixed time, the sooner he will get into the routine. You can do this by making him follow a strict pre-bed routine: brush his teeth, change clothes, read out a story to him and then close your eyes and fall asleep.

Create a peaceful environment – When you want your child to sleep, you have to pay attention to the environment also. If you create an environment which is calm and quiet, it will ease your child and help him sleep well and soon. You can give your child his favorite stuffed toy to sleep with.

Involve your child- When you engage your child in the preparation of bedtime, he is less likely to create a fuss when you actually put him to bed. Let your child choose his own night clothes or pyjamas and arrange his blanket on his bed.

Stick to the routine – Children may not follow what you teach them, but they will follow everything you do. Therefore, it is very important to stick to the rules and routine yourself.

Lessen the time of afternoon nap – If your child takes an afternoon nap, make sure it is not late and the time period is also according to the age of your child. Make it a routine to help your child have some physical activity in the evening so that he gets tired and sleeps well.

Avoid singing or rocking your baby to sleep – Let your child sleep in bed, instead of a rocker and do not rock him or sing a song to him as a routine to go to sleep. This will be annoying if your child wakes up in the middle of the night.

Let your child pick the story – If your child likes to hear a story before sleeping, you can give him the leverage of picking up the story he wants to be read out to him that night. Also, if you fix the number of stories that are to be read at bedtime and follow it rigorously, your child will also understand.

Put your child to sleep before he gets overly tired – Although it is good for the child to get tired so that he sleeps well, make sure you start the bedtime process early before your child shows signs of weariness, as that will make him cranky and disinclined to listen to you.

If your child had problems in falling asleep even after doing all you can, he may be suffering from some sleep disorder. It is best to consult your doctor at the earliest if you suspect anything is wrong. Since children are different, finding a good sleeping routine can be frustrating. But once you find what comforts your child, you will never be deprived of a good night’s sleep again and both you and your child will have apt rest and sound sleep.