Effective Parenting Skills - Do Today's Kids See Life As One Big Commercial?   by Ken Mathie

It still often true today that television is a "babysitter" for adult caregivers and preschoolers, or even infants. Too often, when people are bored or want to rest, they watch TV. This is true even if programming is not particularly interesting to them. They may even need the TV to help them go to sleep. If you turn it off, oftentimes, these people wake up.

Today's myriad of channels and access to the remote control makes television an engrossing experience. It can be easy to confuse which characters go with which plot. When you switch channels rapidly during commercial breaks, you can follow several shows at the same time. However, it's probably prudent to stop this at least occasionally and choose one program, then stick to it.

Children are as guilty of this as adults, perhaps more, because their attention spans aren't quite as long as adults' are. This also often happens because children are much more prone to imitate what adults in authority do rather than what adults say, especially parents. Therefore, if you are a champion channel surfer, then your child is likely to be too. So if you find your child saying, as you try to grab the remote control from his or her hand, "But, Dad, it's a commercial!", take a long look at your own behavior before you do any scolding. If you find yourself doing this behavior, then curtail your own channel surfing in order to control that of your child.

When it comes to what to watch on television, again, there are a myriad of programs to choose from. You can choose just about anything: there are channels devoted to sports, cartoons, foreign language shows, soap operas or game shows, for example. You can also choose from movie channels that include every different type of movie. Parental controls can help parents choose just what content their children watch, even without their supervision.

Regardless of what children actually watch on television, just the sheer volume of television can be too much for children. It can train them to feel that they should always be entertained and never "bored." Therefore, take care to intersperse television watching with periods of both one-on-one interaction and actual physical play. For quality shows, turn to such programs as the ever-classic Sesame Street to teach little ones actual concepts they'll need later on.

Violence is becoming increasingly graphic on television, and again, parental controls can help with this. However, by the age of 12, children see thousands of murders on television, typically. Therefore, limit exposure to violent programming as much as possible. This is especially true for very young children, who haven't the means to process it and may experience nightmares from it. In some cases, children may even act out because of the violence they've seen on television.

Commercial volume is another problem with today's television programming. Children are exposed to one glitzy product or toy after another, touting them to buy this or that. Sugary breakfast cereal commercials are the order of the day for morning cartoons, for example. Again, you can limit this by both limiting television programming and perhaps taping shows for children with the commercials deleted. Of course, they'll still be exposed to this or that best "toy" because of their friends, for example, but they'll be less likely to be forever enticing you to buy them something. And although cigarette ads are banned from television, the same does not hold true for alcohol, which often shows alcohol as enhancing a sophisticated lifestyle. Therefore, children should also be exposed to these types of commercials as little as possible.