You've probably heard this statistic: By age 18, the average child in the US has witnessed 200,000 acts of violence on TV. We discussed this in one of my early childhood classes once, and the general class concensus was that 200,000 is a pretty conservative estimate. I mean, that is around 30 violent acts a day. Consider that the average American youth watches 1500 hours of TV a year. Doesn't that number seem a bit low when you take into account commercials, sitcoms, movies, cartoons, etc?
Well, in our house (That's our new favorite parental saying, btw. As in, "I'm sure Jenny is allowed to ride her bike in the street, but in our house..." Hey, you've got to start thinking of these things early!) we have decided that TV will be limited to just an hour a day. That's two 30 min. TV shows or one movie. The problem is, Derek and I are severly addicted to having the television on.
This is how I know it's an addiction; Last year I wanted us to participate in the National TV-Turnoff Week, and we couldn't even make it a day. First, we had to start on Monday, because there was a NASCAR race on Sunday. Should of been our first clue that we were in for it. So, we decided to start Monday. We turned the tube on by dinner time. Couldn't even go one whole day...
So, to make ourselves feel better, we came up with a deal. Once the baby arrrived, we'd cut back on TV. Well, now that she's here, we need to make good on that promise. I've actually been doing pretty well. During the day, when Derek is at work, I almost never turn the TV on. (I've replaced it with blogging, but that's another story...) Our goal is that by the time Faith is actually paying attention to the TV (before her first birthday), that we are disciplined enough to wait to turn the tube on until after she goes to bed. This would limit our TV watching to just two hours a day. That, we would count as success. Wish us luck!
For more information on the benefits of limiting TV viewing in children you can visit the following websites:
No comments:
Post a Comment