BAD HABITS
... BEGET LETHARGIC KIDS
Children with depressed mothers choose the TV set over the swing set. In addition, a study that examined the relationship between maternal depression and television habits found that kids with obese and depressed mothers watched slightly more TV than kids whose moms were depressed but not overweight. In both cases, kids spent less time outdoors.
"Mothers are the ones who provide opportunities for children to turn off the TV and go outside" explains Hillary Burdette, M.D., a physician at the Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Burdette and her colleagues surveyed 150 low-income mothers of preschool children. The women reported that their kids watched an average of two hours of television a day, but depressed women had children who watched half an hour more TV each day than kids whose moms weren't depressed. Children whose mothers were obese and depressed watched an additional hour of television per day.
One theory holds that depressed mothers are less able to plan activities for their children; another that they have a hard time interacting with their kids. Also, depressed morns watch more television themselves, and their children end up repeating this behavior.
