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early childhood development
Minimizing screen time is still important, and there's a lot of evidence that when kids are younger than two it's important to keep it as close to zero as possible. For older kids, though, we also need to mitigate their screen use by addressing stereotyping and other problematic content and embracing active, social and creative experiences.
As a parent in Toronto, I honestly find it a welcome development that the Ontario government is committing $200 million to create child-care spaces in its budget. Really refreshing. But it's hardly a solution to the child-care crisis that has given parents of young children additional sleepless nights.
Children get the best start in life when they spend their early years lovingly nurtured by engaged caregivers. Helping parents raise healthy, well-adjusted kids is a win-win situation: what's good for the kids is also good for the world.
Given that inequalities emerge early in life - and seem to persist - it is imperative and urgent that Canada invest, develop and sustain a high-quality early child development framework.
It's not an uncommon image in urban India: a toddler -- dusty, tear-stained face, wearing ragged clothing, sitting alone at a construction site.
Alone, this law may not directly change much; it should go hand in hand with the support of more institutional and legal framework aimed at providing women with space and time to pursue their education and general development free of external pressures.
Typical milestones are not the ones I celebrate with excited texts to my husband and best friends, or give my kids gleeful celebratory hugs over. In my own experience -- and I think that four kids under the age of seven counts as experience -- these are the baby and childhood milestones that are really worth celebrating.
Your child hands you a report card you have a hard time feeling proud about. Desperate, you at once want to reprimand your child, take as much TV time out of the schedule, ban video games and enroll in the longest possible summer school program to undo the damage.Don't panic.
