How to Reduce Your Child's Television Viewing Time

Children love to watch TV, but it often takes the place of other, more positive activities, and can turn your children into little 'couch potatoes!' Here are some ways to reduce the time your kids spend glued to the tube.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Children's Books
• TV Guide
• CD Collections For Children
• CDs
• Highlighter Pens
• Bicycle Helmets
• Children's Bicycle Helmets
• In-line Skates
• Children's Bicycles

1. Get a TV listings guide or magazine, and plan TV viewing in advance. Use a highlighter to mark the shows your kids will watch, and stick to the planned schedule to eliminate channel-flipping.
2. Set time limits. Choose the number of hours per week that you are willing to let your children watch television, and stick to the limit you have set. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children should not watch more than one to two hours of television per day, and that children under two should not watch TV at all.
3. Turn the TV off during family meals to encourage conversation and interaction.
4. Set a good example. Limit your own viewing time, and plan what you will watch in advance. Spend time reading or exercising with your children whenever possible.
5. Invite your children's suggestions about TV watching, but retain veto power. Offering them a range of viewing choices, rather than just deciding for them, will help them to become more discerning viewers.
6. Offer a wide range of other activities that your kids may enjoy. Encourage them to get up, get out and get moving as much as possible, and to read books rather than watch TV.
7. Avoid using the TV as background noise - play music instead.
8. Make sure your children don't do their homework in front of the TV. Make it clear to them that schoolwork should be completed in an atmosphere that helps them to focus on the work they are doing.
9. Explain to your children why it is important not to watch too much TV. Talk about the importance of physical fitness and fresh air, and discuss the value of books and imagination.

Tips & Warnings

• Be flexible on special occasions ' if there is a specific educational event or historical milestone on TV, let your children watch it without counting it as part of their weekly limit.
• If your children tend to be channel-flippers, hide the remote control for a while to help get them out of the habit.
• Avoid installing a TV in your child's bedroom. Instead, watch TV together as a family, which allows you to monitor the quantity and quality of the shows your child is watching.
• Don't offer extra TV as a reward for good behavior. Stick to the family limits and offer other, more appropriate rewards if you like. Using the television as a reward or taking it away as a punishment will make it seem much more important to your child.