Screen Time

Maintain limits for TV viewing during the summer vacation

At the end of the summer, what will your child remember? Hours spent reading, playing and being outdoors? Or hours spent staring at the TV?

It’s all too easy to let TV-viewing hours creep up during the vacation. But the American Academy of Pediatrics wants parents to limit TV time to two hours a day—or fewer.

Here are some ideas about how you can make that work during the summer months:

• Make a schedule. Set aside a time each day for TV viewing. To make your schedule work, you’ll also need to schedule time for activities like reading. While you’re at it, schedule times for snacks so your child doesn’t eat out of boredom.
• Stock up on other things to do. Create a costume box for plays. Collect art supplies. Buy a few board games.
• Take TVs out of bedrooms.
• Plan trips. Go to museums, parks or on neighborhood walks.

Reprinted with permission from the May 2008 issue of Parents make the difference!® (Elementary School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2008 The Parent Institute®, a division of NIS, Inc. Source: American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Public Education, “Children, Adolescents, and Television,” Pediatrics, http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/107/2/423).