Media Madness?

A fairly regular post from a busy mom concerned about raising healthy children.

My five-year old has an MP3 player.  She got it for her birthday and didn’t have a clue what it was, neither did I initially.  After she unwrapped it, I imagined her downloading music into it and dancing around–how cute!  Then I imagined her staying put in her room and tuning me out–not so cute–so I tucked that gift away for now..

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently released a study showing that children ages 8-18 spend over seven hours on some type of media entertainment–TV, computer, video games, etc.    Seven hours!  Where do they find the time?   Apparently, they are very good at multi-tasking, which means they watch TV, while on the computer, listening to music.   Hmm, that sounds familiar… Still, it’s a bit startling that kids are putting in over almost 50 hours a week engaged in using different media. 

This study doesn’t make a connection between screen time and obesity but a 2004 Kaiser study discussed the use of media and the correlation to increased rates in childhood obesity.

I’m no scientist, but to me it seems simple–sitting around watching TV, playing video games, on the computer or texting is taking away from the time we should encourage our kids to be engaged in a physical or creative activity–playing sports, riding bikes–and what about reading good old fashioned books!!

Admittedly, my daughter knows how to use the iPhone better than I do so I’m guilty too, but I think we’ll keep the MP3 player tucked away a bit longer–though  I still want to watch her dance.

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