How do we balance the rate at which our children watch cartoons and TV in general? Getting the benefits while ensuring there are no negative effects on our little ones.
While still learning to balance with my children, this is what the pros have(research has) to say.
We have to ensure we don't get carried away by the peace we get, when they are occupied watching TV. So we have to put them first by cutting short our "me time" and getting them involved in other healthy activities.
Let's try to set TV time limits from day 1.
Instead of a child watching long stretches at a go, say 2 hours straight, try to break up the length of time, to 30-45minutes with 5-10minutes intervals.
We should try to watch the programmes our children ate watching, so we can get a feel of them. I try to do this and on occasions when my children view a newly introduced cartoon and can't stop talking about it, I try to watch with them. I've stopped them from watching a cartoon I don't like after watching with them once. They complained but finally we all agreed and they now change the channel when I'm not with them and that program is to be aired.
We can buy DVD's or record cartoons and programs with good content for them, so we are sure of what they are watching. This also solves the problem of their exposure to adverts that encourage them to eat junk food. Win-win.
If we can, (I know this one will be hard though) we should keep our children from TV till they are 18months (1year and 6 months) old. And then they can have some minutes a day of supervised viewing from 18months till they are 2 years old..
As a mother, I know it's not easy but we can try.
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