The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than 2 hours of TV per day for children over 2.
Ever since we had kids, Elisa and I have really had to work hard to cut TV out of our lives. We were raised on Sesame Street, Three's Company, and the A-Team (I love it when a plan comes together), so TV has just sort of come naturally to us. Once we had kids this recommendation from the AAP weighed heavy on us, especially since they recommend NO TV for any child under 2, so we've made an honest effort to prune it from our lives.
First, we tried to cut it out completely for a couple of years when our first was very young. It saved us money and tons of time, and we got to play with Cason a lot more. It was great. Except during football season. And March Madness. And the NBA playoffs. So, basically it was okay in July.
When our kids got older, we got a DVR. This has been great, too, because now we can record shows that we know are okay for them, and we can skip the commercials. (Our kids even know how to do this with the remote. Sometimes we catch them watching the commercials, and when they realize it they say, "we know, we know...they're only trying to get us to buy stuff!) It also allows us to watch our favorite shows whenever we are able to (i.e. after the kids are asleep).
But our latest (and by far the most fun) practice is a jar of marbles.We were trying to figure out a way to give the kids some control over how much TV they watched and when. We had these two small mason jars and some marbles, so we filled one of them up and put it in our bedroom, and put the empty one by the TV. We told the kids that every morning they could take two marbles out of the jar in our room and put them in the jar by the TV, and that each marble represented 1/2 hour of TV. They could watch two shows today, or save them until tomorrow and maybe watch a movie.
They quickly learned to budget their TV time, save it, and spend it appropriately. Now the kids do a lot more imaginative play, reading, embroidery, and other things. Sure, they still watch TV, but not as often. And whenever they ask to watch TV I say, "it'll cost you a marble!"
Love the marble jar idea, I think it is a nice concrete way to solve the "overwatching" problem. Thanks for the suggestion.
Posted by: Laurie | June 18, 2008 at 07:02 AM
That is a great idea. Sometimes Corina starts watching TV and she's so quiet that I forget she's watching and all the sudden it's been an hour. I notice after she has watched too much TV she is way more aggressive and emotional. This is a great way to learn how to budget time and marbles!
Posted by: Francie | June 18, 2008 at 05:13 PM
So, I want to know whose jar is on the left, and whose is on the right. Looks like one kid will be doing more cross-stitching in the next few days, and the other has saved up enough TV time for a "Charlie and Lola" marathon! :) Thanks for the suggestion!
Posted by: Melissa Beth | June 18, 2008 at 09:39 PM
You know, Melissa, this brings up a great point. What do you do if you have two kids? Well, actually, both our kids share a jar. The one on the left is the "supply" jar, and the one on the right is how much they've "saved." Our kids always watch TV together, so we didn't give them separate jars. If you wanted to do separate jars, you'd probably have to be ready for a big fight anytime the TV is on and one of them is out of marbles!!
Posted by: duane | June 19, 2008 at 05:37 AM