We had what I call the The “No TV January” challenge with my little ones.
The decision to go “TV-less” was a mutual agreement between myself and my husband because we felt our children were becoming too dependent on TV and screens even though we are so strict and follow the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics(AAP) which is not more than an hour of screen time for kids ages 2 to 5 with screens of any kind – TV, tablet, phone, or computer.
Also, the AAP recommends that for children younger than 18 months, avoid use of screen media other than video-chatting. Parents of children 18 to 24 months of age who want to introduce digital media should choose high-quality programming, and watch it with their children to help them understand what they’re seeing.
In my personal experience, even though screen time is usually less than an hour, I realized that within that one hour, their attention is usually so focused on the screen that they hardly hear anything else. That became concerning to me. We had to do something really fast. I am not nurturing screen zombies!
I don’t want my children to grow up immersed in screen media, but I want them to learn to thrive without its negative effect.
When we started out with the “no TV rule” January 1st this year, it was tough. A lot of whining and crying initially.
At the beginning, they were so bored, but the boredom birthed creativity. They devised means of engaging their own time in a fun way. Over the course of the month I noticed quite fascinating changes and behavioral evolution.
They got more actively involved with meal preparation for dinner.
They took to helping with setting up the table for dinner more seriously.
They even ‘invented’ a lot of fun stuffs using materials they found around the house.
They have built a submarine out of my sitting room cushions.
My son made a ‘telescope’ out of left-over kitchen towel and invited both myself and his sister to see the stars and the galaxies. We played along. We imagined those things too.
People, I saw the galaxies by faith. I had to because his excitement was infectious. The imaginative play juice was flowing.
We did loads of crafts and creative projects.
We did a lot of experiments including a frozen colorful collage from milk and food coloring.
The children simply had a blast.
They made an imaginary ‘choo choo’ train.
They built a motor-cycle car( whatever that was, I did not see it but they did).
They made a man-made cave and pretended to be spelunkers.
They built a space station in “space” using throw pillows, kids activity table and two little chairs.
Their hand-eye coordination was improved.
They learnt to focus better with slightly lengthened attention span. Creativity got sparked through boredom. Imaginative play was at the forefront.
My son built a rocket with the help of his sister who provided motivation. Actually the following conversation ensued at the time, which was quite interesting:
Girl: mom , brother made a rocket with the table.
Mom: Nice. Did you help?
Girl: No
Mom: So what were you doing?
Girl: I was drinking water.
Mom: cracking up with laughter. Water is good for you!
We had lot of more engaging fun conversations and laughed together much more.
They even made a fishing line from straws and strings.
We had more chance to bond better as a family with lesser distractions from the television.
For us the parents, we found out we could actually listen to CNN through the in-built wall speakers. We were able to keep abreast of events in the country without the distraction of a screen.
That time has been a blessing and I am glad we did it. Indeed it remains a January to remember. Even though it seemed everyone had “TV withdrawal” symptoms initially, but we adjusted.
It was such a good time and I envisage a repeat in upcoming months. Perhaps we should replicate and maintain the same tempo or make TV watching twice a week or only for news and family movie time on Friday night. Time will tell.
Boredom indeed can be a blessing.
The imagination became vividly illuminated.
Improved gross motor function.
Cooperative play was encouraged.
Spatial integration was explored and integrated. These amongst other things were some of the benefits of consciously eliminating TV time for a while that I observed.
The possibilities are endless if only we allow children to be children and adults to be less technologically distracted. Every family should have a family media plan. What is your strategy to limit screen media in your home?
You can share your comments on how you limit screen time in your house.