Your Child and TV
Most parents complain that their children watch too much television. In this age and time television is a fact of life. One doesn’t come across families that don’t have one, or that never watch one. While there is nothing wrong with television per se one has to be selective when it comes to watching television and how much of it you can allow your children. Television is educational, informative, and uplifting. At the same time, a lot of what is shown on TV is nothing but drivel. It is nowhere near uplifting or educational, and shows certain behavior that is quite unacceptable and undesirable in most social circles. But, children are too small to discern the difference and make intelligent choices.
Furthermore, time in front of the TV is time NOT spent in physical activity, nor in conversation. In other words, watching television is a largely passive, solitary, activity that undermines healthy social behavior and promotes obesity and other “couch potato” disorders.
Television certainly influences behaviors. If it didn’t, advertisers wouldn’t spend so many billions of dollars on their tiny, 30-second slices of it.
If parents could have their way, they would probably want to throw the TV out of the window, but that will not solve the problem. So, look at the problem in the face and do something to limit your child’s exposure to it to reasonable amounts. Here are some suggestions:
1. The best place to start is from here and the best person to start with is you. Take a fresh look at how much time you are spending in front of the television screen. If you spend 4 hours a day watching soaps, you can’t blame your child for watching too much TV. As a parent, you are required to make some personal sacrifices only to set the right example for your children. Remember, children learn by examples not by sermons.
2. The problem with most adults and children is that they have got so addicted to television that in its absence they don’t know what to do. Again, you will have to find alternate activities first for yourself, and then for your children. Think of things to do that are healthy and pro-social. The best ones would be to take up some sport like swimming, hockey, football, etc or revive your interest in hobbies such as dancing, painting, scrap-booking, collecting stamps and coins and so on. There is no dearth of what you can do but the bottom line is to do something, not just sit and watch others doing. Even if you feel like relaxing it is a good idea to pick up a good book to read. It will exercise your brain as it relaxes your body. How about listening to your favorite music?
You will find your local recreation center or adult education center very helpful in finding the right program or class for you. Don’t forget to offer some sort of incentive to allure your child towards an activity of his/her choice and be generous in praise. After all, you are taking them away from an addiction, and it is not easy.
3. Television watching timings will have to be regulated. You can speak to your child and mutually agree to avoid watching TV at specific times, such as before school, or after 9 pm, or during meals. Fix a day of the week as a regular TV-free day and dedicated to outdoor activity.
4. You may even think of cutting down on your channel subscriptions. This way you will watch only what has been pre-booked. You save time on aimless channel surfing, and the family can jointly decide the programs that are actually worth watching.
5. You can draw up a chart to use television time as a reward for other activities, such as completing household chores, or getting homework done.
6. Watch television together – and then talk about what you viewed. You can discuss the program itself – its values, its quality of acting and scripting – or you can discuss the commercials. Doing the latter is a very valuable exercise as it helps children to be less naive and gullible when it comes to advertising. See if you, as a family, can figure out what strings the adverts are trying to pull to get you to want and buy their product. Do the toys and foods live up to the hype when you actually go and buy them?
7. Don’t turn off the television abruptly. Give sufficient warning, and try to time it with the end of the show.
8. Cancel your expensive cable and satelite subscriptions and use the extra money either for other activities or else to rent movies. This discourages aimless channel surfing and, instead, encourages you, as a family, to go out, choose a movie, and watch it together – without ads! Combine this with a home-cooked pizza or nachos and you have the makings of a special family night instead of the usual couch potato routine.
As with all things, moderation is usually the key. Be selective. Find the good programs and watch them. The rest of the time, do something more active or more sociable. Within a month or two you will wonder how you (and your kids) ever found the time to watch so much of it.
Dr. Noel Swanson’s website provides free expert parenting tips – you will also find a free chapter to his highly acclaimed book, the GOOD CHILD Guide. Why not discuss parenting issues with other parents on a parenting forum?
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