“In taking our marital arguments upstairs to avoid exposing the children to strife, we accidentally deprived them of chances to witness how two people who care about each other can work out their differences in a calm and reasoned way.”

“Children key off their parents’ reaction more than the argument or physical discipline itself.”

“Might our culture-wide perception of what it means to be a teenager be unwittingly skewed by the fact they don’t get enough sleep?”

“She found that obese kids watch no more television than kids who aren’t obese. All the thin kids watch massive amounts of television, too. There was no statistical correlation between obesity and media use, period.”

“When we changed the channel from violent television to tamer fare, kids just ended up learning the advanced skills of clique formation, friendship withdrawal, and the art of the insult.”

“(Even for adults, seeing someone’s lips as he speaks is the equivalent of a 20-decibel increase in volume.)”

“The more controlling the parent,” Caldwell explained, “the more likely a child is to experience boredom.”