What they didn't do was make sure they had secured their furniture so it wouldn't tip over on their little boys. A home surveillance video shows Bowdy working for almost two minutes to free Brock Shoff in their home in Orem, Utah. 

The video has made the rounds nationally because the twins' parents want people to know it could happen to anyone.

"We were hesitant to post this video initially, Ricky Shoff, the twins' father told CNN, "but a lot of parents have probably made the same mistake that we made, (they) don't have their furniture secure or bolted to a wall."

Sharon Evans, RN, BSN, CPN trauma/injury prevention coordinator at Cook Children’s, hopes this serves as a reminder of the dangers of TV and furniture tip-overs, especially during this time of year.

"People are getting furniture for the holidays and TVs for the Super Bowl," Evans said. "If those aren't anchored, we have seen injuries and even death at Cook Children's due to these items being unanchored. Parents often times get the new TVs or furniture and then put the old ones in the bedrooms for the kids. Every piece of furniture in the house should be secured. 

Since 2009, Cook Children's has seen 137 furniture-related injuries. One child even died in 2014 as a result of furniture tip-over.

The Consumer Products Safety Commission says a child dies every two weeks in the United States from a TV, a piece of furniture, or a combination of the two tipping over in this country. And, a child is admitted to the emergency room every 24 minutes because of a tip-over.

“In the last decade, the number of children seen at our facility for injuries from dressers and television falls has steadily increased,” Evans said. “All the families that bring in children with these injuries say the same thing: ‘I didn’t think this would ever happen.’ Sadly, it does happen, and people need to be aware so they can prevent it.”

The Consumer Product Safety Comission provides these safety tips in any home where children live or visit:

Anchor furniture to the wall or the floor. 

1. Place TVs on sturdy, low bases. 
2. Anchor the furniture and the TV on top of it, and push the TV as far back on top of the furniture as possible.
3. Keep remote controls, toys, and other items that might be attractive to children off TV stands or furniture. 
4. Keep TV and/or cable cords out of reach of children. 
5. Make sure freestanding kitchen ranges and stoves are installed with anti-tip brackets. 
6. Supervise children in rooms where these safety tips have not been followed.

Learn more about the Anchor It! campaign to secure furniture and TVs here.

Don’t fall victim to these persistent persuasion tactics by your children. The more children are exposed to on television at a young age, the more they start to see it as normal.

“The more kids see things that are too mature or scary for them, the more they see it as normal and may repeat the behavior whether that is using bad language, or being aggressive or violent,” said Joy Crabtree, a licensed psychologist at Cook Children’s Urgent Care and Pediatric Specialties in Southlake.

Crabtree believes that appropriateness of television shows and movies should be determined by a number of factors such as the age of a child, maturity level and the content of the show.

Crabtree said, “Another important thing to look out for is whether or not the show is a fantasy, like a cartoon, or realistic with “real” people doing inappropriate things. All these things should be taken into account.”

Use these helpful resources, provided by Lisa Elliot, a licensed psychologist and clinic manager at the Cook Children's Psychology clinic in Denton, to help monitor what your child is allowed to see on television. There are online resources where you can look up appropriate ratings of shows/movies to help you as a guide such as http://www.kids-in-mind.com/ and https://www.commonsensemedia.org/. Also, don’t forget to take advantage of your DVR. You can record a show, watch it when it is convenient for you and decide if it is appropriate for your child to watch.

If your child happens to see something inappropriate on television, make sure you discuss the topic and see if they have any questions or concerns over what they saw. As a general rule, parents should monitor how much time kids spend in front of the television and other electronics every day. Use these resources to make sure you know what your child is watching on television this season.

We attempted to go media free and wouldn’t you know? Nailed it!!!

Just kidding. We far from nailed it.

Ok guys, this is HARD.

The Conklins are not taking to going screen free likes ducks to water. Like. At. All.

You know the ancient proverb "fall down seven times, stand up eight?" One of my favs.

Well we have fallen down 7,000 times with this project, but we keep trying to getting up. We are at 7,001 at the moment.

The exciting news is that we have learned a healthy balance exists. We have learned that we do great without it. When we are unplugged, we are awesome! Unfortunately, it's just a bugger of a habit that is soooo easy to slip back into. This has been a frustrating experiment, but that fact that we struggle means we need to be doing this.

Going media free really is just as simple as removing the screens from the family. After simply telling the kids, “no,” you have to listen to them belly ache for a short time before they go off and find something to do.

I am going to be honest, I enjoy my screen time just as much (if not more) than the kids! I like texting people, playing Words with Friends and reading news articles online. I even do a bible study with a cool app on my phone!

Almost everything I do can be done on my phone! So when I want to get on my phone or watch a TV show, I then let the kids jump on their devices. I think my own personal enjoyment of screen time may be what is keeping us from being truly successful at this (oh my gosh, did I just admit that?)

We have worked hard to make sure the family is “off” the screen more than “on” during the day and that seems pretty manageable. The kids are getting it! They know our goal is to spend more time doing other things besides being on the screen. They don’t argue as much when I declare, “We are screen free until X, Y and Z are complete.” We are doing pretty well decreasing our screen time. Having said that, I would really like to fulfill my pledge to this blog and get to a point where we are just “off” all the time. We are working on it.

I am excited because we are going to Michigan this summer. For part of the trip we will be “Up North” where it is pretty hard to get cell phone service and I plan to ditch the hand- held games before we go.

The Conklins will be screen free before the summer is over, even if it means we have to hang out in the woods for a few days to do it.

Previous media free stories:

• 'TV head' - Could you unplug?
• Going media free - part 1
• Breaking it to the crew - part 2
• 'Operation Unplug' - part 3

I had just agreed to write about how our family is going to drastically reduce their screen time over the summer. Now to break it to the kids. I was actually a little nervous about their reactions. After all, I had created three media junkies.

We were at the eye doctor. I was watching all three kids play on their handheld devices. My original plan was to have a big family meeting after dinner and explain the plan. But instead, in the waiting room I simply blurted out, “We are going to go almost totally screen free for the rest of the summer.” I was waiting for the big wails and sobs and yells of protests, but I don’t think they believed me. They sort of chuckled and looked back down at their games. I explained that I had been asked to write about the experience on a regular basis, and we were really going down to one hour a day. Oh buddy. That got their attention.

My middle girl, Morgan, 10 years old, said, “You know, that might be fun, we may learn something.” 

That was about it as far as the family taking it well.

Our youngest, Matthew, 6 years, said, “I don’t want to.”

Our oldest boy, Max, 11 years, said, “What? Wait, what? When? For just this weekend? Are you sure? Mom, this is not going to work. Can I pay for extra time? Can we start in September? What are we gonna DO all summer if we can’t play games?” 

You get the drift, Max is not happy. Like at all. This line of questioning went on for hours. I think I saw him actually go through some of the stages of grief to be honest, especially the denial and bargaining part. Poor guy.

I told the kids my plan is to allow them one hour a day with the option to earn an additional hour a day by doing certain chores and tasks. I figure we can set it up together. Maybe a family trip to Hobby Lobby to buy a fancy chore chart, stickers. You know, all that cool stuff I see on Pinterest, but never actually do.

I decided to give the kids 24 hours to mentally prepare. The two youngest ones want to start now. My oldest, not so much. I know there are going to be special circumstances that may result in the kids getting additional time (I bet Max will be the first to point ALL of them out) and I am not totally sure how this is going to go. I have to admit, I have gone from being completely freaked out by the idea to actually a little curious how our summer is going to change now that we will be a lot less distracted. 

Previous media free stories:

• 'TV head' - Could you unplug?
• Going media free - part 1

Aubrey Conklin, moved to Texas from Michigan via Chicago almost 10 years ago. She’s been married for 14 years and is the  mom to three kids ages 11,10 and 6.  A huge sports fan who not only loves all things Detroit sports but spends her own free time playing soccer, volleyball and softball.  Aubrey is a part time preschool teacher as well, a volunteer for her kid's school.