Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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How Much TV is Too Much?
How much television is too much? I have baby-sat in households where TV is limited to an hour a day and households where a two-year-old was simultaneously watching cartoons on the TV and a movie on a portable DVD player. Working with such different families has led me to wonder how much TV I will allow my own children to watch once I become a parent. Below I will explore the good and the bad of TV time.
The Good
I have not come to a definitive answer as to how much TV my children will be allowed to watch but I have a feeling they will end up watching a fair amount. Sometimes the TV really is just a great way to entertain a child while you tend to another child or catch up on some household chores. As long as children are not glued in front of the TV all day and night I don’t think it is such a bad thing. Of course I plan to have my children outdoors as much as possible, getting fresh air and exercise, but on a rainy day I don’t think that turning on a show like Nick Jr.’s Yo Gabba Gabba and encouraging them to dance around and sing along to silly songs is such a bad thing.
TV can also be educational. Now, I am not saying that TV should be the ONLY educator your child has but if you let your child watch some TV why not make it an educational show like Sesame Street. This week actually marks Sesame Street’s 40th anniversary which only proves that there are some great programs out there! Children can learn so much from shows such as; letters, numbers, shapes, colors, and languages. Shows can also teach your children about important social issues! Sometimes parents just do not know where to begin when talking to their children about certain things so why not let a show spark the conversation?
The Bad
As with everything I think moderation is the key to the TV dilemma. TV can be a useful tool for a parent who needs some time to get things done, such as make a phone call or throw some laundry into the washing machine but it should never be used as a babysitter! Studies have shown that even infants can be affected by a television that is on in the background. The sounds from a TV can frighten or agitate a child and since young children can not verbally communicate their feelings a parent may not know what has upset them and therefore may not be able to comfort them properly. When I am nannying I try to make sure that whatever I have on the TV is age appropriate for the child in my care and I even try to limit the amount of news I watch since the news can be frightening so much of the time.
I have also found TV time to be an issue when watching more than one child. There are times when I may have one child engaged in a craft or some other activity while a sibling watches a show but inevitably the child doing the activity will become distracted by the TV and will lose interest or focus on whatever activity we are doing. I need to be able to see both children so what is a parent or childcare provider to do in such a situation?
How much TV do you let your children watch? Do you monitor how much TV and what they watch based on age?
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About the Author
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- From: michcoy@xanga
- Name: Michelle
- About Me: I am a full-time nanny and a part-time writer and absolutely love both jobs. The outdoors is where you can find me when I am not working. I love to go kayaking, camping and hiking.
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Comments (21)
Well, I don't have a child, but when I do I'm certainly not going to let them just sit in front of the TV for hours on end. I used to do that and I honestly became a little lazy. I don't watch TV anymore, thankfully, but the computer on the other hand... ahaha
"How Much TV is Too Much?" Any.
We give our oldest 2 hours of t.v. a day. 1 hour to watch educational shows *he really likes word world* and one hour he can play a game. The one hour of educational shows entertains him usually while I shower.
Sometimes we'll all sit down and watch a movie together.
Moderation is key! My daughter is allowed to watch some TV, but she doesn't sit in front of it all day! It's nice, in the mornings, to sit together and watch a cartoon.
I don't have kids. When I was in elementary school though, we were only allowed to watch 1 or 2 hours of TV a day.
Now I don't really watch TV and when I do it's still usually not more than 1-2 hours a night.
We don't watch much television, generally because we're too busy. During the school week every thing they do must be something they can defend as educational but on weekends they are free to watch the fluff shows. Don't write off rainy days as being off limits for outdoor play. Invest in some raincoats and galoshes and get out there in the rain. It is loads of fun to walk, run, play and splash in the rain.
My oldest child is 11 and watches whenever he wants. He spends a lot of time outside and playing with toys. If he stopped doing that and spent all of his time in front of a screen then we would put restrictions on it. My other child is 1 and has no interest in the TV and hasn't watched it. When he is able to there will be limits just like oldest had until he was much older.
When people see my nearly-one-year-old's reaction to Dora the Explorer anything in stores, they tend to assume that I have a "TV babysitter", when the truth is she saw a Dora doll in a store one day around 6 months old and fell in love...it's been down hill ever since. LOL. She can pick Dora out of a cluttered toy catalog in dim lighting...seriously, she planted her index finger smack on the Dora dolls in the Target catalog a couple of nights ago. I haven't had the heart to break it to Tim that "Da-da!" isn't "Daddy"... She only just recently saw the TV show and, of course, it's the best thing since sliced bread...she'll actually sit and watch and smile away when we happen to catch it on. She doesn't see it nearly every day and when we're not staying with Grandma anymore, the she's out of luck; we don't subscribe to cable, unless she gets the DVDs for her birthday or something. By & large, I don't worry about her.
The 7 & 9 year old are a whole 'nother story. If we need to them focus on anything, we schedule an unplugged day. TV stays off - no excuses - until homework is done. Having grown up in households where TVs were on, literally, 24-7 has made them very scatter-brained. If it's on, it's as though they're being beckoned to by god himself; nothing else exists. And they would do nothing but sit there and watch TV (and play videogames) if you let them. It absolutely slays me! Ideally, they'd watch no more than 2 hours, max., including game time...in the present situation, it has been as much as 3 hours. But hopefully that will all end very soon.
i think its always important as a parent to always spend as much time as you can with your children...take them outside play with them..go on trips with them..play board games with them. read to them..never rely on tv as a fun outlet for your kids....i would never use the tv as a s substitute when I'm not around. The only thing i can think that is good for kids to watch is probably stuff from pbs..i watched lots of shows from pbs..like sesame street, arthur, wishbone, ghostwritter..those shows really helped kids learn SOMETHING..unlike watching things like on mtv or some brainless reality show.
I do set mykids' watching TV hours...sometimes only. When they are having exams, they are not allowing to watch...only can a show a day. If we do not control them...they will on the TV till they fall a sleep! I prefer them to play their toys rather than sticking their eyes on the TV screen only.
my little guy and I have been sick for the last week so there have been a lot of movies playing.. normally tho our tv shuts off automatically at 10 and its off until after supper, this is when its acceptable weather and we can spend lots of time outside.
He does not sit and watch tv, he is only 2, but he plays around it, its more background noise.
We've found that the easiest way to deal with the tv question, as with most things, is to eliminate the problem at it's source. We completely killed pay tv in our house. With the internet and NetFlix it is a ridiculous and unnecessary waste of money, particularly since there is no way to NOT pay for all the channels you don't want. Since my kids no longer have 24 hours of "children's programming" pumped into our house they hardly ever watch more than an hour or so of tv per day unless we have a movie night. This has been a blessing in so many ways. They play more together. The play more creatively together. They are more selective about what they watch. They don't get sucked into one show after the next and they are not exposed to the endless commercials and parade of greed that is about to hit all of the "children's" stations.
We do use NetFlix liberally for both kids' movies and tv shows and the educational videos we watch for homeschooling. Also if they really want to they can keep up with their favorite shows on-line so they are not social weirdos or anything. The thing is it is amazing how quickly they lost interest in the shows they swore they couldn't live without.
If I could go back and do it all over again I would never have pay tv to begin with. I can't imagine how many hours of our life I allowed to just be wasted.
I don't have kids and I've never really given any thought to this. But, I guess they would get different amounts of TV on different days.
I dread to think how much tv we watch per day when we were growing up.
I don't even want to know how much TV i watched growing up, my mom kept the tv on while she was doing chores, usually VH1 or MTV, back in the day when it was good, but we did go outside and play. I did watch Mr Rogers and Sesame Street...
I think any TV is excessive, but I know it happens (TV watching that is). I try, very hard, to keep my two-year old's viewing limited to two hours a day. Usually only one hour of this is child specific programming, the other is usually the news or something like that. Some days we go a little over, some days we don't watch any at all. Some days we watch a DVD movie or something. I do not like children being placed in front of the TV for distraction. I would rather not get something done than sit my child in front of the tube.
My 2 year old usually just plays around the TV. It's more like background noise than actual entertainment. He sleeps with his TV on, but at a very low volume. His night light just wasn't doing the job. The only time I've ever used it as distraction was when he was still very small, about 6 months old, and I'd put him in his baby swing and play a Baby Einstein dvd while I did some chores. As he got older, he likes to stay with me while I do chores, and sometimes he even tries to help. He loves to play outside when the weather permits, and he's always running around the house with his toys.
I barely watch TV at all. Internet is my new crack. :P
I don't have kids, but if I did, I doubt they'd watch much TV either. Hulu, on the other hand....
when you know all the words to every advert
I watched a LOT of TV as a kid... now I only watch the news and House Hunters. I'm at that "trying to be adult" stage in my life....
If I have a child (and that's a big 'if' right now...) I would limit the TV he/she watched, unlike my mother. Not that the TV had any affect on my childhood, but it did introduce me to sex early on and other age inappropriate things (on MTV at 9). Psychologically and mentally though, I am fine. I am smart.
I think 1 hour to 2 hours maybe on the weekends is a fair amount.
I have found from baby-sitting that the kids that watch more TV are less imaginative and creative when they are playing away from the TV. Those that don't watch much TV at all are way more content playing with little things and being creative.