Hi Parents:
Tonight’s meeting was very enjoyable. We had a total of twelve parents out of the thirty-two families who were invited. So, not the best showing, but the parents who came were interested in having discussions, plus we were able to take advantage of the “early bird special.”
One of the things that was really nice was that the parents had an opportunity to talk with one another. Two parents who met at the meeting are probably going to arrange a play date for their children who are in the Kid Group program. Additionally, nearly all the parents had an opportunity to ask questions about what is going on with their kids. There was a wide range of questions such as, “What are appropriate interventions for teenagers who are making inappropriate comments at school?” “How much time should my child spend on the computer?” “How much sleep should my child be getting?” and “What about medications for my child in terms of certain behaviors?” Four families were interested in having me talk with their prescribing doctors. I am happy to do this. This can occur by first contacting your prescribing doctors and asking them if they want to discuss this with me. If they do, then contact our office and ask Abby to prepare a release for you to sign. I will then set up a telephone consultation with that doctor.
Additionally, families brought up concerns about what is the right time for their child to stop certain behaviors. Parents gave examples of what seemed to be much younger age behaviors that their children would engage in somewhat privately. We talked about homework assignments and the best way to have homework get done. I talked about my general rule which is that it either happens right after school, or, if that is too overwhelming for a child, that they take a break and try to get the majority of it done by dinner. We talked about what a contingency is, where a parent will make available something like a computer game or special time with the child following completion of a certain amount of homework.
Finally, one of the things that came up has to do with how much time their kids should be spending with video games and computers, and how to implement parent controls to prevent them spending too much time. I will be making video tutorials of how to invoke the parent controls on the latest version of the MAC (snow leopard) and the almost-latest version of Windows (Vista). So stay tuned for that.
As you can see, an awful lot happened tonight. And not only that, everybody paid the correct amount, and the bill came out exactly right. So, thank you very much to those of you who participated. It was a pleasure. And for those of you who weren’t able to come this time, I hope we will see you when we have our next parent dinner in two months. So mark your calendars now for April 6, 2010. I hope to see you then. Thanks!
Best wishes,
Bruce
