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TV and Kids:

Remember when Saturdays were something special because cartoons came on? As a kid, Saturday morning was a treat, all those cartoons to watch. You didn't have to have cable or satellite; if you had a TV you could watch cartoons on Saturday. That was it, though. The rest of the time you were outside playing. There were no bad words on television. The only bad words that were on television were in movies that you weren't allowed to watch.

Things are different these days. There are channels that play cartoons 24 hours a day, and cuss words that used to not be allowed even in PG-13 movies are all over prime time shows. More violence is allowed, more sex, more foul language, more everything. Give these two factors, it can be really hard to regulate your child's viewing—both what they are watching and how much they are watching.

There are still ways for parents to keep control of what their child watches, how much they watch, and how it will affect them:

• Always know what your child is watching—when your child is this young, there is no reason you shouldn't know what they are seeing on TV. Don't allow a television in their room, and this issue becomes a lot easier to keep control of. If your child has to watch TV in front of you, they won't try to watch things they aren't supposed to near as often.

• Don't let them see everything—this is one of the biggest issues with children and television. They tend to get to sit on the couch with their parents and watch whatever the parents are watching, and parents don’t even really think about how it will affect the child much differently than the adult. Children are very impressionable, and they will pick up on everything they see, including actions and words on TV. Instead, send them to their room to color or play a game for a while. If you don’t want to send your child off to another room while you are watching TV, you should limit what you watch to kid-appropriate material until after they go to bed.

• Limit the time—kids spend way too much time in front of the television. Even cartoon television networks (the ones that make more money the more they are watched) have begun airing commercials with the message "Why are you watching cartoons? Get outside and play!" Limit your child's television time to a couple of short cartoons a day, or a certain amount of time per day. If your child gets used to being able to watch TV all the time, they won't know how to deal with it when you tell them they can't watch it for a while. It is best to make it a standing rule, this way your child is constantly using their imagination and thinking up different things to do. Limiting your child's television watching time is just another reason you shouldn't let them have a TV in their room. It is hard to always know whether they are or aren't watching TV if they are in a different room than you with a television.

• Explain TV to them—they won't understand right away, because it is really hard for them to understand that television is not real life. But, what they do understand is pretend play because they do it all the time. It is very important to explain to them that the people on TV are playing pretend and that the cartoons are drawings. Let them watch shows that explain how certain shows and movies were made. This may help them see how it really isn't real life, and that they cannot do the things that they see done on TV.

• Make it worthwhile—when you do let your child watch TV, there are many programs that are very educational that you can let them watch, such as nature shows. These are a much better use of your child's time than mindless TV shows or cartoons.


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