Tuesday, January 10, 2012

How Bad is T.V...Really?

I said I would never do it.  I used to say, "Not my kid...".  Well, it has happened...as I suspect it does for the majority of most parents out there.  Two dreaded letters, "T.V."

I remember exactly when it happened.  September of 2011, when I broke my foot, I had no options but to let Mason watch TV.  My husband was away on business when I broke my foot and it took him an additional 2 days to get home after the incident.  So, what does someone with a broken foot do with a 17 month old?  Well, since the pain was nauseating, I wasn't going to run around after him.  So, I let him watch TV.  He went from 30 minutes of " The Best of Elmo" to unrestricted amounts of Sesame Street viewing.  And that is when it all began. 

Mason has expanded from Elmo, to Sesame Street, to Curious George, Dinosaur Train, Super Why, Sid The Science Kid, Cat In the Hat, etc.  If you haven't noticed we are PBS fans!  Mason has also started to request Mickey Mouse, so another whole realm will be opening up.

Although I have managed to reign in Mason's TV viewing to an appropriate amount, I still wondered, how bad is TV for your kids?  Below is an article from babycenter.com to help clarify it all. 

"The best way to approach television is to think of it as refined sugar: You want your kids to enjoy the seductive stuff without consuming it to excess. So you'll need to stay on top of the time your child spends in front of the television. The average American child watches three to four hours a day, despite the recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics that kids 2 and older watch no more than one to two hours daily. The AAP recommends that kids under 2 watch no television at all.

Starting out tough from day one is the key to keeping viewing time under control. It's a lot easier to relax your standards later on than it is to wean a 5-year-old from a three-times-a-day Barney habit. Here are some tips on how to monitor your child's television viewing:

Monitoring your child's TV Viewing

  • Limit the amount of TV your child watches. More than two hours a day is too much. To make it seem to your child that he's watching more — and to keep his little brain from going on autopilot as he watches — break up viewing into ten- to 15-minute increments. You should also keep the television out of your child's bedroom and turned off during mealtimes.
  • Avoid setting a firm TV time "allowance" for your child. This seems counter intuitive, but it's surprisingly effective. You may want to let your child come to you when he wants to watch and keep to yourself what the absolute maximum is. That way, you'll avoid tacitly sending the message that there's a certain amount he "should" be watching.
  • Make television physically inconvenient. Too often, television is a backdrop to family life: It blares away in the den or great room while the kids are playing, Mom's cooking, or the family is eating. Consider putting the TV in a small, out-of-the-way room in the house (on the second floor, if you have one). Another way to keep the TV from being front and center: Keep it in a cabinet that remains closed when the TV is off.

Choosing what to watch

  • Go with calm, quiet programs. Slower-paced viewing gives your child time to think and absorb. Lots of random activity, like the kind in action/adventure cartoons, confuses children. Also, some research suggests that children who watch violence on TV are more likely to display aggressive behavior. Stay away from scary shows, too. Choose simple programs that emphasize interactivity, such as Blue's Clues. Ideal are shows that inspire your child to makes sounds, say words, sing, and dance.
  • Watch programs, not television. Rather than allowing your child to sit down and watch whatever is on, use the TV listings to select carefully what he is going to watch. Turn off the set when that program is over.

Your role

  • Watch TV with your children whenever possible. Try not to use the set as a babysitter. A recent study looked at three groups: children with unlimited access to television, children with moderate access who watched without a parent, and children with moderate access who watched with a parent. The last group scored significantly higher academically than did the other groups. That aside, just being there says to your child, "What you do is important to me."
  • Help your child become a critical viewer. Even young children can learn to watch television without "tuning out." Explain what's going on in the show and in the commercials (and clarify the difference between the two). Encourage your child to ask questions and relate what's happening in the show to his own life. If you have a DVR, consider recording programs. Then you can watch when you choose, and you can pause to discuss what's going on.

1 comment:

  1. These are definitely good tips, thank you. I use to watch my shows in one room and my daughter would watch her shows in her room because my shows were not appropriate for her. Since being introduced to the DVR, I can record my shows and watch them at a later time so I and my daughter will watch her shows together now. I can tell she likes our bonding time together. Since working for DISH, they have introduced the Hopper, so every TV has DVR functions. It's pretty cool and with so much recording we are going to do they have the biggest DVR recording space. This means I don’t have to delete my daughter’s recordings or my shows. I really love the remote finder because we are always losing the remote. What a sweet piece of technology. I can't wait till it is released.

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