Serving Kids a Balanced TV Diet

By Sharon Estroff

We parents can’t help but feel pangs of guilt over allowing our kids to veg out in front of the boob tube this  summer. Not only does TV bring violent and sexual content within a remote’s click of our kids; it’s got a virtual epidemic of childhood obesity brewing in its wake. And to make matters worse, the July issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine just offered up plenty more reason for concern on a silver TV tray in the form of three separate, large scale studies (involving thousands of children and adults), that convincingly and disturbingly link excessive television viewing in kids with lower academic performance and reduced long-term educational potential.

One of these jarring studies revealed kids who have TV’s in their rooms scored a full eight points lower on standardized math and reading tests than kids without bedside televisions sets. While another found that within a group of a thousand 26-year olds, those who reported watching “lots” of television as kids had largely achieved lower educational levels than their less TV-obsessed peers. (By the way, the American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that the average American kid watches four hours of TV daily, which most experts would qualify as “lots”.)

So what’s a guilt-ridden parent to do with the ever-mounting heap of research identifying the hazards of the small screen for our kids? Cringe helplessly in the kitchen while our kids soak up Sponge Bob in the playroom? Sum TV up as intellectual and moral poison and ban it from our children’s lives indefinitely?

As I see it, we’re better off approaching television as we would chocolate rather than arsenic. It’s fun to eat chocolate. Sometimes it’s REALLY fun to eat chocolate, even if it’s only a tiny nibble. But if we ate chocolate all day, everyday, that would be a totally different story. We would gain 100 pounds, break out in a million zits and feel horrible.

TV is really no different. Occasional thirty minute nibbles of Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network are unlikely to doom our kids’ chances of getting accepted to an Ivy League college. (Or steer them toward lives of violence, for that matter.) But just like our kids would eat platefuls of chocolate kisses for dinner if we’d let them, they need parentally imposed boundaries and restrictions regarding television to ensure they consume plenty of healthy non-couch-potato fare, and don’t OD on empty TV calories.

Here are some practical ways parents can do just that:

• Keep televisions out of kids’ bedrooms. The reported eight point discrepancy between test scores of kids with and without bedroom TV’s speaks for itself. Experts agree that the best place for the television is in a high traffic family room where viewing activity can be readily monitored.
• Try a weekday ban. Although it’s decidedly more difficult during the summer, nixing TV Monday through Friday once school gets back in swing frees kids up to focus on more important things – like homework, extra-curricular activities and family. (Thanks to the advent of Tivo, weeknight programs your kids “positively can’t live without” can be stashed away for the weekend.)
• Go high-tech. For virtually every high-tech problem, there’s a high-tech (high-priced) solution. Using space age devices like Time Scout Manager (www.time-scout.com  , $89.99) and EyeTimer (www.eyetimer.com  , $109.00) parents can divvy up television viewing minutes in the form of weekly allowances. In order to activate the TV “on” button, kids must swipe a credit card or enter a PIN number (depending on the particular gadget gimmick), and once they do, their allotted screen time starts ticking away. When their accounts are depleted, so is their power supply.
• Think outside the box. If your kids appear dumbfounded over the prospect of finding something to do that doesn’t involve a screen or electrical outlet, try suggesting some of the following low-tech, high-interest activities guaranteed to entertain all kinds of would-be couch potatoes:

· Imaginative Kids: Build a fort with chairs and blankets. Invent something new and useful. Put on a puppet show.
· Artsy Kids: Make a collage using magazines. Cover a table with cellophane, spread shaving cream around and “finger paint.” Make a mural on the driveway with sidewalk chalk.
· Stylish Kids: Put on a fashion show. Open a beauty shop complete with manicures, pedicures and hair braiding. Give tattoos with non-toxic paint.
· Sporty Kids: Arrange a mini-Olympiad with kids in the neighborhood.
Make an obstacle course in the backyard.
· Nature-loving Kids: Make a bug habitat in a glass jar. Plant flowers. Pick up litter.
· Hungry Kids: Turn pretzels sticks, marshmallows and licorice into edible K-nex. Decorate slice and bake cookies. Make ice cream sundaes.
· Helpful Kids: Wash the car. Organize bookshelves into categories or alphabetical order.
· Enterprising Kids: Toss pennies in the back yard, hunt for them and pocket the findings. Collect old knick-knacks and hold a five and dime sale (donate leftovers to Tzedakah).
· Menschlich Kids: Be a mother’s helper to an overwhelmed new mom. Walk an elderly neighbor’s dog. Make cheerful cards for nursing home residents.
· Kids Suffering from TV Withdrawal: Discover the magic of books.