Do you set limits on your kids tv and computer time? I find that during nap time for my youngest, it’s typically easiest to let the older boys watch tv or play the wii so the house is quiet. But I worry that this is getting out of hand.
Do you set limits in your house for how much media time your kids get? How do you enforce it or manage it?
How much tv and computer/video game time do you allow your kids to have in your house? Please include their ages in your answer.
-Sally
Talkin' Tuesday 
April 13, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Hi Sally!
My kids are ages 13, 11, 9, and 7. They all are allowed 1 hour of media each day. They have to choose how they spend it – computer, Wii or TV. I try to make them all do it in the same hour, or it gets hard to manage. Most of the time they want to do the same stuff anyway and there will be two watching TV and two on the computer. Most days we don’t have time for it anyway, and I’m not always rigid about it. That has been my rule of thumb since they were little. ( I made the older kids have a one hour quiet time during the little one’s nap times. They spent time in their room or in the living room reading or playing quietly. Of course I only have 1 boy, so my experience has to be different than yours! 🙂 )During the school year, I sometimes even only allow 1/2 an hour, especially during sports seasons. On weekends we do a little more, and when they are sick, there is no “rule”, although I prefer they lay on the couch and watch TV to sitting in my uncomfortable office chair at the computer getting their grimy, germy hands all over my keyboard! 🙂
I have read and heard that there are links between too much TV and ADD – TV scenes switch so often and so quickly that it conditions our brains to expect life to be that way, and makes learning or focusing on things for more than a few seconds at a time harder for kids who watch way too much. So there you have my two cents worth! 🙂
April 13, 2010 at 6:23 pm
My girls are 7 and 3. I allow them to have 30-45 minutes of TV/Computer/DS time daily. One of my rules is NO TV at night time, except Friday or Saturday nights (Family Movie Night at the Marins).
It has never been a problem until now, Bella really likes the computer.
Limiting media has worked great for us. What is so wrong with a “boring” afternoon? I had to make the choice to stop feeling like I have to constantly entertain my children. Sometimes I used tv just to “calm them down” but I realized I was doing them a disservice.
April 13, 2010 at 7:02 pm
My kids are almost 5, 3 and 2 weeks. I am laughing because we just brought home our new baby….so TV is on way more than usual. Normally I let them have an hour a day, split into 2 chunks, 30 minutes after lunch and 30 before bedtime. But that’s all changed until we have some sort of a routine again. They also have “quiet time” in their rooms for an hour each day. This was something I trained them in after they stopped napping. We do not have a wii, or video games and we do not let them use our computer. They have some kid computers and I know the day where they want/need to use the computer is coming.
I know that limiting TV is good, the less they watch the better. We do strictly limit what they watch, no commercials and only a few select recorded shows off PBS and DVD’s. I feel like it’s too big of an influence and the commercials lead to greediness. I also don’t appreciate the language used on shows so we have had to eliminate certain shows. I am rambling, must be sleep deprivation…
April 13, 2010 at 11:36 pm
My kids are 7, 4, and 3. We don’t really have a rule as to how much media time they get. It sort of depends on the day. My kids have always been early risers (5 am) so we used to let them watch 1-2 hours in the morning as it was the only way I could get through that. But now with school, they can watch 1/2 show in the morning if they are ready but usually they forget about it and end up playing. I was worried about that transition but it has gone super smoothly. We sometimes watch a short movie in the afternoon if they are especially cranky or play their video games (DS or Leapster). The weekend they get to watch a little more and usually end up watching some in the morning and sometimes we have movie night. None of them get much computer time.
If they are sick or being watched by grandma’s then all of that goes out the window. This is something we are always working on. I am probably a little more strict about it than my husband and we also tend to watch more in the winter and less when the weather is nice outside.
April 14, 2010 at 1:06 am
Hi Sally!
This topic is very dear to me. I actually started blogging about it in December. I haven’t been advertising it because it sometimes seems to be a polarizing topic. I figure if people happen upon it and find it useful/helpful, then it’s serving its purpose. But since it’s relevant to your post, here it is:
http://practicallyunpluggedkids.wordpress.com/
Anyway, my daughters are 6 and 3. We have seriously cut down on the amount of media they consume. At the moment, they do not spend any time using media on a daily basis. We watch movies on Friday afternoons (we call it “Movie Friday”) and they each get 1/2 hour of computer time on Sundays (usually PBS kids games/Starfall/LPS online games). We don’t have handheld video games. We do have an XBox, which I bought my husband when the six year-old was a baby. We never use it.
It used to be that they did watch tv on a daily basis. I still limited the amount to about an hour, but my husband and I decided last summer that we would restrict it even more. It seemed like once the tv went on, they would whine and beg for more and were miserable after watching anything. Now that it’s become a special treat (and we do watch on occasion, but not usually during the week), there is no begging, no whining….just a little appreciation for getting to enjoy a show.
The side effects have been immeasurable…nothing short of amazing. We’ve watched them become the best of playmates and more creative than I’d ever thought possible. It’s a happier home all around!
The only downside, and I don’t really see it as a downside, is that they’re kind of out-of-the-loop when it comes to things like Hannah Montana or iCarly. Like I said, not really a downside.
We know it would be irresponsible to completely unplug them in this world full of technology, but we want them to stoke their imaginations and enjoy all the benefits of creative thinking….and get OUTSIDE! LOL
April 14, 2010 at 3:57 am
I have 2 boys, ages 3 and 6. We don’t have “television” or any sort of gaming device. We don’t let them on the computer unless we are researching something together.
For us, “media” is movies from the library. Sometimes they are educational, and sometimes they are fluff. Our 6yo is into nature movies, while the 3yo likes Blues Clues. I don’t really limit their TV time, though, and I know that I should. I would estimate that they watch about 2 hours a day, which is typically one movie. Honestly, I need that time to work, so I don’t mind it, especially if they are learning something in the process. They usually fall asleep during the movie anyway!!