Parent Express for 22-Sep-2006

Welcome to Parent Express, the PCI e-zine! Here you will find updates on the Parent Coaching Institute, along with ideas and practical tips for the parenting journey.

As you prepare for a new school year with your children, I wanted you to be aware of a study on media violence. Researchers are once again calling media violence a “public health issue.” To quote from the conclusions of this research: “Media violence poses a threat to public health inasmuch as it leads to an increase in real-world violence and aggression.”

It should give us pause that experts and researchers were naming media violence a public health issue since 1952! In my book Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill, co-authored with Lt. Col. (Ret.) Dave Grossman, I outline this progression and give the dates over the years when the most seminal studies were done. At one point in 1976 many researchers were saying that no more research was necessary. The conclusions were apparent: Media violence increases real-life violence.

As a parent or a professional working with parents, there is much you can do to get the word out. For over 50 years, media violence has escalated into today’s horrific and sadistic images. Be clear about the research because the research is clear. Talk with everyone you know, including your children why images of murder and mayhem are not appropriate entertainment. There is so much agony and pain inflicted in the real world, why would we want to give this to our youngsters as sources of their amusement?

I hope this research and the article I wrote below is helpful to you in designing action strategies that result in children steering away from violent entertainment and embracing peace as the only option for our homes, communities, and this weary world.

Gloria DeGaetano, Founder and CEO

The PCI Parent Coach Certification Training Program
Applications are now being accepted for Fall Quarter for phone classes to begin September 28. Application deadline is August 30.

Check out our new Video About the PCI Parent Coach Training Program. If you are a forward-thinking professional with an undergraduate degree and a deep calling to work with parents, welcome home. We seek the “best of the best” for our acclaimed distance-learning Parent Coach Certification Training Program™. Please click here for more information. As a PCI Certified Parent Coach™ you’ll have the opportunity to create a parent coaching practice, working with moms and dads who want to take their parenting to the next level. Call today for an application packet: 425-401-1519 or email: info@thepci.com.

Working with a PCI Parent Coach is giving yourself the gift of time out for reflecting, re-grouping, and renewing. Check out our new Video about the PCI Parent Coaching Services.

To find a PCI Parent Coach in your area, please click here. Or call 425-401-1519 for a referral to a PCI Parent Coach selected especially for you. PCI Certified Parent Coaches™ are caring, thoughtful professionals with years of experience working with parents. PCI Certified Parent Coaches™ have successfully completed the PARENT COACH CERTIFICATION® Training Program - a comprehensive academic one-year, graduate-level program in collaboration with Seattle Pacific University.

Through a series of coaching conversations that can be either by telephone or in person, PCI Parent Coaches help you re-discover your dreams and design your life for more joy and satisfaction.

Moms and Dads, tune in every Saturday morning at 11 a.m. on 1150 AM for true understanding, authentic affirmation, and real-world solutions to parenting challenges while sharing laughter and conversation. We want to hear your stories too! So call us on Saturday!

In the Seattle area, call 425-373-5527. Out of town, call 888-298-5569. Listen to us on the web: www.1150kknw.com

Upcoming topics and guests:

Screen Violence: Impact on Developing Minds and Hearts

by Gloria DeGaetano

“I’ll finish her off by ripping out her heart.”

“ No, cut off her head.”

“ But I want to rip her heart out.”

“ I want to see her head fly off.”

“ Oh, all right, let’s see her head roll. There! Look at all that blood. Cool.”

Is this a conversation between two psychopaths? No. This exchange typifies the type of conversations that took place between two sixth grade boys when they played the video game Mortal Kombat 2. Video games today display even more horrific violence, with sharper images and more realistic graphics than they did a decade ago. Words, ideas, and images of brutality not ever imagined to be “entertainment” ten years ago currently fill up much of our kids’ leisure time. And their conversations reflect the increasing escalation of the levels of violence portrayed. As our youngsters lounge on their beds watching violent cartoons, take in the latest horror flicks at movie theaters, and sit in front of video game consoles playing popular violent video games, they are either talking to themselves or talking to one another. Their inner dialogues and friendly conversations help form specific attitudes that affect not only their present choices, but also the choices they will make as future citizens and parents.

Attitude formation has both cognitive and affective components. An attitude can take time to form and be a conscious, intentional deliberation through a slow thinking process, such as a jury verdict. Or an attitude can be formed over time, catalyzed unconsciously by emotional reactions, rather than by thoughtful analysis. Attitudes developed through advertising, for instance, are formed mostly unconsciously because their appeal is primarily to the emotions. In fact, visual sales pitches are intentionally constructed to keep thinking to a minimum and emotional reaction to a maximum. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that the advertising industry knows more about affective-focused attitude formation than does the average American.

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Video Clip About PCI Parent Coaching Services

Check out our new Video About the PCI Parent Coaching Services. Featured in this five-minute video are PCI Certified Parent Coach™ Debbie Wiedner ( www.ParentEaseCoaching.com)
and two of her clients and PCI Certified Parent Coach™ Karen Bierdeman
( www.ParentWiseCoaching.com) and one of her clients.

Podcasts of Parent Appreciation Radio are now available.You can find them in itunes by entering Parent Appreciation Radio. You can go to www.ParentAppreciation
Radio.com and download them that way. Or you can visit the PCI Blog. New podcasts are put up regularly. Let me know what topics you would like discussed on Parent Appreciation Radio by emailing me: gloria@thepci.com and PCI Coaches will address them. I will let you know when the interview on your topic will air.

Time to Transform™ Workshop Series begins in September. This series of 3 weekends (September 22-24, Nov, 10-12, and Feb, 2-4, 07) offers teachers, administrators, directors, or parents a comprehensive plan to radically revamp their school, entire district, or non-profit organization. Exciting, new research is shared, powerful assessment tools given, and practical ways to catalyze profound positives changes, the end result. Why not wake up next spring knowing you have entirely transformed your current challenge? For more information, please call Gloria DeGaetano at 425-401-1519 or 1-888-599-4447.

To engage Gloria DeGaetano for a keynote or workshop, contact her at 425-401-1519 or 1-888-599-4447.

See this excellent report for important information: The Media Family: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers, and Their Parents. http://www.kff.org /entmedia/entmedia052406pkg.cfm