If you have average kids and you are an average family, then you all almost certainly watch too much TV.
You probably all spend too much time on the computer, too much time playing video games, and too much time on your cell phone and have the TV on in the background no matter what you are doing.
Screen-Free Week is a good time to help your kids “realize that life without screens is not impossible and may actually be more fun.”
Sure technology is good and some TV shows are educational. The point of Screen-Free Week is reducing excessive screen time, not getting rid of screen time all together. Taking a week long break from screen time gives you and your kids time to have some fun and find other things to do.
Instead of spending all day watching TV or playing video games, during Screen-Free Week, your kids can:
- read
- play
- think
- create
- get physically active
- spend more time with friends and family
Why not just let your kids watch as much TV as they want?
Plenty of studies show that “excessive screen time is linked to a number of problems for children, including childhood obesity, poor school performance, and problems with attention span.”
What are you doing for Screen-Free Week?
If you aren’t going to go screen-free for a week, at least consider setting some screen limits by taking the TV out of your kids’ room, restricting total screen time to no more than one to two hours a day, turn off the TV when you aren’t watching it (no background TV), and don’t let infants and toddlers under age two years watch TV.
Blue Ribbon News special contributor Vincent Iannelli, M.D. is a board certified pediatrician and Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and is the author of The Everything Father’s First Year Book, which is now in its updated, second edition. His office, in Rowlett, has been serving the Lake Ray Hubbard area for the past 15 years.
Turn off TV, videos and turn on family fun for Screen-Free Week added by Editor on
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