Occupational Therapy

March Madness: Daylight Savings Time

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Daylight savings time (DST) starts in a couple weeks and nothing sucks more than losing an hour of sleep. You’re dysregulated, the kids are dysregulated, everyone and their mom is dysregulated; it’s not a fun time.

According to a Better Sleep Council survey, 29% of all parents reported they disliked the Spring Forward time change. Once bedtimes and sleep routines are thrown off, everyone chimes in on how the practice is no longer necessary. It’s challenging enough to reset our kid’s circadian rhythm after summer break and again when DST ends. Now we must do it again, but with a time loss. Kudos to Arizona and Hawaii for staying out of the whole thing…

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Child(ish) Reads: How to Raise a Healthy Gamer

| Patti Webb

I usually don’t have two book reviews this close…

I received an advance copy of How to Raise a Healthy Gamer and was planning on saving it for May when we have a whole week talking only about video games. I’m only about 70% done with this book, but I think the psychology and framework can be applied to other things besides gaming.

Author Dr. Alok Kanojia introduces himself as a former video game-addicted undergrad who got kicked out of UT Austin for skipping nearly all of his classes. Kanojia then went to a monastery in India when he realized he did indeed have a problem. There, he learned the power of the mind to control his own thoughts (in addition to yoga, meditation and Reiki) and returned to college. He now has a medical degree in Psychiatry.

In addition to being a therapist, Kanojia owns a mental health coaching company called Healthy Gamer that provides resources to overcome video game addiction. The book, How to Raise a Healthy Gamer: End Power Struggles, Break Bad Screen Habits, and Transform Your Relationship with Your Kids, helps parents understand modern video game addiction and work with their kids to create a plan to establish healthy gaming boundaries. It publishes March 12 and is available for pre-order.

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Playdate Behavior

| Patti Webb

Based on our Playdate Reviews, you know that Mary and I have been doing bi-monthly playdates with our kids for over a year now since they’ve been in the school-age stage. But for the last couple big playdates, I started seeing some patterns.

I feel like what we are seeing is probably similar behavior to what you’ve seen when kids are in groups: talking over each other, getting louder in volume, fighting for attention and showing off, getting jealous, making rash decisions, and going apesh*t when the playdate ends.

At the end of these playdates, I’ve felt like I had to incessantly apologize and abort mission on more than occasion. Baby and toddler playdates are going to have a different vibe, obviously. We are far from the time when we could’ve just hung out with wine while the kids did whatever.

That is not to say that all playdates are like this. I look forward to picking and planning these outings and our kids very much see each other as best friends. So let’s talk about the ups and downs of playdate behavior and what Mary and I have done to stay cool.

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Our Splatter Studio Playdate Review

| Patti Webb

Coming back inside for our February Playdate Review. By now, I’m sure our kids are wondering why we keep taking them on all these surprise trips.

Quick review: The playdates need to be a something new that the kids have never done before. They need to be a more-involved playdate activity and have a combination of cognitive/motor/social skills and sensory integration. While I’m sure a normal playdate at the park will do just fine, we also want to help promote some cool activities and spots around our city.

Splatter Studio opened in Atlanta around three years ago, and recently opened a location in Sandy Springs. While I’ve been to Splatter Studio before for my birthday a couple years ago, they now have Family Sundays, where you get a free child ticket with the purchase of one adult ticket. Kids have to be under 13 years old, and you each get to take home your own masterpiece.

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Child(ish) Reads: Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors, Pt. 2

| Patti Webb

Back with Part 2 of our Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors review.

We got into what goes on in our kid’s brain when they are dysregulated and showing bad behavior. But it takes two to tango, and how we react to our kids during the tumult matters.

So here are the parent takeways that help us keep our heads:

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