Kids, TV and the Guilt Culture

The Washington Times is carrying a story reporting on the release of a new study involving kids and TV. The total number of hours that kids as young as three months surprised the researchers, but the team also noted that they didn't know if it was a good or bad thing. Simple research, just counting hours.

About 90 percent of U.S. children under age 2 and as many as 40 percent of infants under three months are regular watchers of television, DVDs and videos, researchers said yesterday.

They said the number of young children watching TV is much greater than expected.

"We don't know from the study whether it is good or bad. What we know is that it is big," said Frederick Zimmerman of the University of Washington, whose research appears in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

A second study suggested excessive TV viewing can lead to attention and learning problems for teenagers.

The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that children in the United States watch about four hours of television every day. They recommend that children under age 2 not watch any television and that older children watch no more than 2 hours a day of quality programming.

But 29 percent of parents surveyed by Mr. Zimmerman and colleagues think baby-oriented TV and DVD programs offer educational benefits.

"Parents are getting the message loud and clear from marketers of TV and videos that this is good for their kids. That it will help their brain development. ... None of this stuff has ever been proven," Mr. Zimmerman said.

The Academy of Pediatrics estimates that there may be too much TV by their standards. Presumably they want parents and their kids to partake in other "more stimulating" activity that with enhance the creativity, mental and phsycial development of children.

I am all for stimulating creativity, physical and mental play for my children. However, TV offers some great choices. Through TV, my daughters, including the 19 month old, know their numbers and letters, (the oldest in Spanish too), they can indentify and appreciate pieces of classical music, they see dance moves to mimic (my oldest loves Dancing With The Stars) and stories they can relate to their own lives. True, my wife and I encourage and provide the primary learning on things like reading and math skills, provide books that give science knowledge, but TV has provided supplemental material that we cannot provide. TV is not bad.

But what pediatricians and "those who know better" do is make us feel guilty about any level of TV our kids watch. One radio commentator this morning, while discussing this story, said he felt guilty for allowing his year old son to watch an hour of TV a day, even though the boy apparently gets some benefit like my daughters do. The guilt machine is in full force when one hour of TV, often undertaken so parents can speak about adult things, makes an otherwise intelligent person feel as though they are abusing their kid.

The guilt machine is designed to sell books and activities "approved by Pediatricians." It is the guilt machine that makes parents feels as if they are failures if they break the guidelines, when all they are is "guidelines." These recommendations are supposed to help but instead they are used to classify parents as good or bad, proper or not. Why is it not up to the parents to decide what is best for their kids.

My daughters exhibit some valueable skills, including the ability to concentrate not just on a TV show, but on their own play, often for hours at a time. Are the two related? I don't know but I don't really care, but I can tell you this. I don't feel guilty about their TV watching