Help your child form healthy screen-time habits with 7 no-brainer rules you can start today

When children enter the social vortex of school life and no longer live in the parent-censored bubble of Sesame Street and Blues Clues 30-minute videos, they’ll demand to know what all the fuss is over the Power Puff girls and Pokemon. You’ll want to keep them in the know, just so they can keep up with the conversation at school.

As with everything in life, moderation is key.   Watching too much TV can lead to eye strain, a diminished attention span, laziness and obesity. While no parent really wants to be a member of the kill-joy brigade, sometimes you have to be a little tough for your children’s sake.  Here are some easy and realistic rules you can implement today:

1. Limit the hours your child watches television.  Pediatric studies recommend only 2 hours of TV per day, and absolutely no TV for children under 2. So if your child already watches 5 hours of TV a day, tell him to choose two shows that he’d really like to watch on a school night, or three that he can’t live without on a weekend. Don’t forget to explain why so he understands that you’re not just being a complete ogre.
2. Don’t reveal the maximum number of hours you will allow TV-viewing.  This counter-intuitive rule is surprisingly effective.  By giving kids a ceiing for the number of hours they can watch, you unwittingly work TV into their daily schedule, and they’ll no doubt do anything to squeeze that time in.  But if you keep this information to yourself, you may find that on some days, they will skip watching TV altogether.
3. Make TV access difficult. Never place TVs in your child’s bedroom, or let them eat in front of the TV.  Keep it instead in an out-of the way room or in an armoire that can be closed when the TV is off. Or, try and create a common area for the TV so your kids will know that you can track what they’re watching and for how long.  
4. Let them watch programs, not TV. Instead of running the TV in an endless loop and leaving the kids to flip aimlessly from channel to channel, allow them to tune into a regular program.  Turn off the tube when the show is over.
5. Choose calm, quiet programming. Cable channels like the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and the History Channel  often have PG-rated programs that appeal to all ages.   They’re presented well, and in a slower-paced, less “MTV-style” manner.  Shows like Shark Week and Meerkat Manor, for instance, encourage kids to think critically, ask questions and look up information online and in books afterwards.
6. Watch TV with your kids. It’s always an easy solution to plop the kids in front of the television when duty calls.  Next thing you know, three hours have flown by and your kids and their auto-pilot brains are still staring at the TV.  Watching TV with kids and commenting every now and then about what they see makes the experience less passive and more interactive.
7. Prohibit TV and videos during playdates. Television is an obstacle to your child’s need to play and interact with friends.  Make it clear that the TV will stay off during a playdate, and try to get other parents on board with this rule whenever they have playdates in their own houses. 

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