Nashua Police Athletic League
PAL Blog Helps Nashua Community
May 15, 2009 - 1:05pm — Visitor
Welcome to the Nashua Police Athletic League Blog. We hope to create space where members of our community can share resources with each other. With your help we can continue to strengthen out support for the youth of Nashua and the community at large.
BEE a PAL
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Child's electronic communications can be harmful
August 24, 2009 - 2:33pm — officer.karenYOUR CHILD’S ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS
MAY BE GREATER AND MORE HARMFUL THAN YOU KNOW
Parents in the Greater Nashua area have a variety of different views as to when, to what extent, and how much access their children should have to electronic communications, whether it be access to websites, e-mailing or texting friends, or establishing their own web page through Facebook, My Space, or other sites. Restricting and supervising access to the internet at home is an important start, but it is not enough. Some children, at the urging of their friends, establish an e-mail or web page they can access when visiting their friend’s house whose parents may provide more liberal access to computers. Parents who are concerned about limiting access to their child’s electronic communications, in addition to restricting home use of the computer, should have a discussion with the parents of any friend whom their child is visiting about computer access. Just as we, as parents, want to confirm that an adult will be present at the home while our children are visiting their friends, you should feel free to speak with those parents about your restrictions on electronic communications and confirm that the children will not be using the computer for internet access, or if so, it is supervised within the parameter of access you place on your children.
Furthermore, if the friend has a cell phone, your child may be using that phone to text others. The decisions parents make as to controlling texting between adolescents may limit or prevent or text exchanges, just like e-mail, from becoming abusive and cause emotional distress to their children.
Lastly, a parent who has determined their child is mature enough to have a cell phone, perhaps with unlimited text capabilities, can and should still set ground rules as to its use. One obvious rule is to take the phone away from the child at bedtime so that she cannot text all night to her friends. Like in other areas of our child’s development, children need their parents to act like parents and to set limits on electronic communications.
Video Game Couch Potato
August 24, 2009 - 2:07pm — officer.karenFor those of us who grew up in Nashua, we note a major difference in the neighborhood; there are no children outside. We remember on a Saturday when we would get up, have breakfast, go outside and play, come in briefly for lunch, and then be outside again until dinner time. Now children are often in front of video games for many hours a day. While the Nashua Police Athletic League strongly encourages athletics, whether it is a pick-up game of basketball, cross country, boxing, street hockey, or other others sports, some children are not interested in outdoor team sports and, if given the option, would prefer to sit in front a video game all day. Wasting a Saturday in front of a video game all day is detrimental to any child’s mental and physical health. As an alternative, there are interactive Wii video games which can provide children, and perhaps their parents, some exercise. In addition to the standard Wii sports, there is a game called Wii Punch Out wherein you are boxing a computer opponent or can be competing against a friend. Either way, as long as you are standing up and participating fully, you and your child will get exercise and probably break a sweat. There is also a Wii Resort game which has a variety of sport activities. While these games are not a substitute for outdoor physical activity, it can be a beginning for a healthier lifestyle for your child. Your child may also obtain more stamina for outdoor activities such as hiking a mountain with you this Fall.