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What To Do About Screen Time
Kids are just as susceptible to screen addiction as adults
When I was a child, in the sixties, my parents let us watch some TV after school, but it was always off during dinner and homework. Before bed, we got to watch another show or two, if there was anything worthwhile on the black-and-white screen.
When my own first child was born, in the 1980s, we had heard about the dangers of exposing kids to endless hours of television. My husband even wrote his doctoral dissertation in psychology on the topic! Cable TV was a whole new world, and PBS shows like Sesame Street were increasing. As a young Mom, I felt intense pressure to limit my kids’ exposure to TV. My first child was given two “tokens” and a cup. She could use one token for each half-hour of TV.
That lasted three years until I found myself the very nauseous and newly pregnant mom of a preschooler. We increased to four tokens.
But soon there were two kids, and then a third. As they grew, I realized that I couldn’t use the token system anymore because we’d either be watching all day or everyone would be fighting over what to watch. I moved to a more organic system, in which I mentally paid attention to how much time the “boob tube” was on.
