Culture Challenge of the Week: TV Inertia
The dog days of summer have set in. At least in my hometown, with temperatures routinely in the 90s or higher, many moms I know find themselves saying “Yes,” to their child’s daily demands for TV, videos or video games - simply as a way to beat the heat.
It’s too hot outside, swim team is over, and the pool routine has lost its appeal. The midday retreat to the TV easily settles into an August routine. Too often, downtime in front of the TV screen increases with the temperature, filling up the long, lazy afternoon.
It’s TV inertia.
It’s got to go before school starts.
Don’t get me wrong - there’s nothing wrong with kicking back in front of a decent show or game and enjoying the entertainment. But, “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” As we exchange the leisure of summer for the challenges of a new school year, it’s time to help our children peel away from the TV and refocus on other activities, especially intellectual ones.
Need a little motivation to keep your own resolve to avoid giving in to appeals for more television? Call to mind the pitfalls of too much TV.
For instance, according to a 2010 report in the journal Pediatrics, we know watching TV tends to inhibit the speech development of toddlers and preschoolers. School-age children who sit transfixed for hours before the flickering screen are more likely to earn lower grades than their peers who watch less TV.
Couch potatoes also are more likely to be overweight - hit by the double whammy of inactivity and suggestive junk-food advertising. Also, adolescents who watch explicit sex on TV - or even hear explicit dialogue - are more likely to experiment with early sexual activity and even become pregnant.
That’s not all. New research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine indicates that in the long run, watching TV can shorten a person’s life significantly. For adults 25 and older, watching TV for an hour reduces a person’ life span by about 22 minutes. Over time, the negative impact on the TV watcher’s health is similar to the effects of tobacco use, obesity or lack of exercise.
The habit of watching an excessive amount of TV takes root easily, and parents will find that weeding it out is back-breaking work if it’s not done early and often. It’s not surprising, really. Screens promise instant gratification and provide a portal into the shared peer culture - a social “necessity” for school-age children.
How to Save Your Family: Start the School Year with Zest
The transition back to a school schedule offers parents an ideal opportunity to dust off good intentions, shine them up a bit and ensure a sterling start for our children in the new school year.
How to cope with TV inertia?
Explain the plan before the screens go cold. Let your children know their newly discovered free time (courtesy of blank screens) will pay great dividends for friendships, physical conditioning and fun.
Impose reasonable restrictions on TV use. (Don’t expect your children to go cold turkey.) Scale back the time spent per day, and then pare back the days of the week when you allow them to watch TV.
Some parents let their children select a favorite show to look forward to each day - perhaps an afternoon special or ESPN’s “SportsCenter.” Others prefer to limit school-age children to weekend shows to keep homework nights media-free. In any case, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than one to two hours of television a night. What they don’t say is that it should be mentally and morally healthy - but a good parent like you knows that already.
Finally, engage your children’s minds with mental math, history games and good books as school gets under way. They need “material” to work with to get the intellectual wheels turning and spark discussion of their goals (and yours) for the year ahead.
Above all, let your own enthusiasm for the new school year be the zest that brings a smile to your children’s faces in these closing days of summer!
• Rebecca Hagelin can be reached at Rebecca@howtosaveyourfamily.com.
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