Dr. Dave's Cyberhood: Making Media Choices That Create a Healthy Electronic Environment for Your Kids

In a world where parents are spending less and less time with their children, and relying more and more on easy alternative ways to keep them satisfied, I found this book eye opening and profoundly important. Even for parents with good instincts and sound parenting skills, this book offers facts and revelations that would give any caring parent cause to re-examine what their children are being exposed to, and make sure that their own influence outweighs that of the media surrounding them. It is clear from recent tragic events in our schools that parents need enlightenment about ways to sort through all the clutter and mixed messages our kids our getting. Bravo to David Walsh, Monica Walsh and Kristin Parker for their brave and powerful attempt to create awareness about this important subject.

I found this book, especially the specific exercises to be extremely helpful. However, as an avid reader of all of Dr. Dave's work, I still think his first major title is his masterpiece, Selling Out America's Children. While this title has many positive messages for parents and their children, in his earlier work Dr. Walsh prophetically outlines the longterm effect that the media have on children. Reading it now is especially enertaining because it shows how on the money he was over 7 years ago. This current title takes his work to a new level, but once you read it, be sure to check out Selling America's Children!

I was afraid this book would just bash media, but Dr Dave has written a remarkably balanced book that is amazingly useful to me as a parent. The chapters each cover a kind of media and provide thoughtful exercises and questions that we can use with our kids. Last night at dinner my daughters and I went though one of his suggested exercises about advertizing messages. Later, we had some fun together "catching" some of the hidden ads on TV. I also found his chapter on the internet enlightening. I would absolutely recommend this easy read to other parents. It has given me hope that I can influence my kids attitudes about media without being heavy handed.