This is a common issue in most modern families. Many parents complain that their kids are watching too much TV, or playing too much on the computer, or in general devote too much of their day to what I like to call “screen time.”
There sure are many screen temptations these days for kids. It’s not just television and the Internet. There are computer games, console games, and Wii, not to mention iPod Nano, which enables them to watch movies anywhere, even on the go. Screen time is not even limited to the home anymore – kids can do it anywhere.
This may be very good for entertainment companies, but it’s very bad for kids. Our children need to play outside, interact with their friends and be physically active. Spending too many hours each day sitting around and playing on the computer contributes, according to many experts, to the obesity epidemic.
As parents, our job is to encourage our children to be more active, but since we are so busy and overwhelmed, it’s very tempting to just allow them to watch one more show or to play one more game.
Parenting the easy way would mean asking the kids to turn off the TV, but then – as soon as they start protesting – giving up and allowing them to watch more. In the short term, this certainly achieves peace and quiet, but in the long term, we are not doing our kids any favors by allowing them to watch too much TV.
Parenting the hard way would mean barking at them to turn off the television without providing any explanations. This would create unnecessary conflict and friction, and there’s also the risk of being inconsistent – sometimes letting them watch more TV (when you need to get some work done), and sometimes allowing them less screen time.
Limiting screen time the constitutional way means establishing a clear set of rules when it comes to how much time the kids are allowed to spend in front of a screen each day. Involve the kids in deciding how much daily screen time is reasonable, then establish clear rules to achieve this, which include appropriate rewards for following the rules and appropriate consequences for not following them.
A detailed example of “screen time rules” can be found on page 61 of my family guide, Your Family Constitution.
Photo by roxeteer
