Keeping Our TV Habits In Check Can Help Kids Reduce Screen Time

By SheSpeaksTeam Jul 23, 2013

If you struggle with setting limits on your children’s screen time, you may find some success in limiting the amount of TV you watch. It’s probably hard to admit, but the message we send to our kids when we limit their TV/computer time while parents spend a good many hours in front of a screen each day is definitely a little confusing to kids.

Time reports about a new study published in Pediatrics that suggests the number one indicator of how many hours children spend in front of the TV depends is how much their parents are watching. Researchers found that for every hour a parent watches TV their kids match it adding almost an extra half hour.

This may not sound so bad, but with the average adult involved in the study reporting they watch 4 hours of TV and media a day this can really add up when kids are matching and adding to that time.

Though our kids are definitely learning their TV viewing habits from us, there is still a way to change the way we as families unwind. Child psychologist Vicki Panaccione believes it is up to parents to instill better screen viewing habits and alternative ways to relax or spend free time. She says, “What parents do instead of watching TV teaches kids what to do with their time. If they’re readers, kids will take time to read, or play or color. If they’re couch potatoes, then they will have little spuds.”

What do you think of the study that suggests the amount of time our kids spend watching TV is directly related to parents’ screen time?

Would you be willing to limit your screen time in an effort to encourage your children to watch less TV?