HOW TO KEEP CHILDREN AWAY FROM TV

Well, we all know good habits beget good habits, bad habits beget bad habits. The Chinese puts it as “Jing (4) Zhu (1) Zhe (3) Che (4), Jing (4) Mo (4) zhe (3) Hei (1)”. It is almost impossible to keep children away from watching TV if we adults can’t keep ourselves from the goggle box for any considerable length of time.

The scene where an entire family is glued to the TV whilst having dinner is not an uncommon sight in countries where almost every family owns a TV (if not two or three or four…). To eradicate the problem, we must nip it in the bud. Adults ourselves must make it a habit NOT to turn on the TV as if we were switching on the lights at night. Or there are also some of us who like to switch on the TV to create some kind of background sound. These habits must go if we want to keep our children away from TV.

But the truth is, even if we ourselves aren’t hardcore TV addicts, our children may still be attracted to the box as bees to honey. What does one do in such circumstances? Well, there are no magic solutions. To pull them away from TV, we need to find alternative activities that would interest them enough to forget about the TV that sits in the living rooms.

What might these activities be?

For the curious and easily distractable 2-4 years old, we can try some arts and craft or anything that involves their little hands. Paper cutting, sponge painting, coloring, making faces out of paper plates, making crafts from ice-cream sticks and colored paper are all activities you could try. All you need is a little creativity. Playdoh is also q good activity for kids of this age.

For the school going children whose memory has developed to the point where they can remember the date and time of their many favorite TV programs, distracting them is a lot more challenging. You can consider setting up a reward chart, giving them points for not watching TV and letting them decide what prize they might get if they manage to keep their TV watching hours within certain limits. Or sit down with them to play some games. If all else fails, get them out of the house and into the outdoors for some well-needed exercise. Or sign them up for holiday classes. Once the TV gets out of sight, it gets out of mind.

The above hinges on the assumption that someone is at home to keep them away from the TV. If this is not possible, then get a TV that allows them to set how many hours the TV can be turned on per day.

At the end of the day, the TV is like a knife. Use it correctly, we can derive maximum benefits out of it. Use it wrongly, we can expect massive destruction. And this is not an overstatement.