Today is the 6th day with '0' TV time in our home. Not that I have become an over responsible parent, but the astro decorder is faulty. Our first reaction was to get it fixed so we can enjoy having the kids leave us alone for a few minutes, or Siva get all glued up during CSI or House screening time, or me having the 'me' time by watching celebrity gossips! But we decided otherwise and thought this will be a brilliant time weaning kids of TV and also to see how the family functions without it. The greatest mistake I made as a parent is to let my sons have meals in front of the TV! Although I have limited the kids to 2 max 3 cartoons a day but still had tough time feeding kids without the TV on. So the last 5 days has been blissful. Instead of TV it has been replaced with books, and board games, and just doing things together. The kids are also forced to look at toys that normally they ignore and they play with each other more. Experts says kids below 2 years old should have no TV time, and above 2 no more then 1 hour. But most kids I know spend hours in front of the TV, watching adult shows that are inappropriate for their age. TV promotes too much violence, risky behaviours, sex, alcohol and drugs. So if you think your kids are watching too much you can try some of these:
1. limit the number of and kind of shows they can watch and stick to it.
2. set a good example by limiting your own tv viewing.
3. use good judgement on the kinds of show that a young child can watch (for instance too much sex in james bond, but young kids watches this freely)
4. come up with a family tv schedule and choose shows that they whole family can enjoy
5. talk to your child about what he or she sees
6. offer fun alternatives to TV ; board games, play dough, physical activities etc
Bottom line is limit your TV time...and I can say this bravely because we dont have a TV for now, and I hope for a very long time! Share with me if you have great ideas about limiting TV time.
2 comments:
you can set the password to their favourite cartoon channel. I did that, so everytime my daughter wants to watch I have to insert the password. But as usual, my hubby things I am kejam :(
I cancelled Astro a couple months back. Boy! Was I glad I did it. My boys started talking to each other more...of course they talked but at least now it's not only about movies and cartoons! Also it leaves me more time to talk to them at the dinner table.
I enjoyed the time when I had no TV!
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