Weaning Children Off Too Much TV

I am guilty of letting my children watch too much TV at times. These are some of the times when I turn to children's DVDs or PBS shows:

• when I am sick
• when I am pregnant and exhausted
• when I need to work from home
• when the weather is way too cold or way too hot to want to be outside
• on the weekends when we adults want to relax and go at a slow pace (but the children don't)

These are strategies I have used to wean my children off too much TV when I want to change the amount of TV or DVD viewing they do.

1.) Cut the current time in half.

Be honest about how much viewing they're doing each day and resolve to turn off the TV when half that amount of time has passed.

A crucial part of this step is having a "new" activity out and visible for the moment that you turn off the TV. This could be your kid-friendly craft box with plenty of paper and materials for them to make creations. It could be toys they forgot about that you put up for a rainy day or even for Goodwill. If the children haven't seen them in a long time, they're as good as new.

If you get desperate, set out kid-friendly cooking ingredients and utensils on a covered table or floor space and let them create real food! Or play a board game with them. Or run out to the dollar store and buy a few toys that you let them pick out "just for fun." Or set up a pretend birthday.

Maybe it is close to some family member's half-birthday. Bake or buy a half-cake, write in half a card, decorate half the dining room, give them lunch or dinner on half of their plate, and sing half of the birthday song to them. Don't forget to give them half a present, like half of an outfit, half of a deck of cards, or foam letters from half of the alphabet. They can receive the other half of their present tomorrow.

Any of these things will take the pressure off you and hopefully cut short the whining when the TV goes off. The children are being gradually weaned off this amount of TV; it can be an uncomfortable process. The good news is that other things can be just as enjoyable as TV-watching, and after too much TV, "real world" activities might be even more enjoyable once that initial weaning period is over.

This strategy requires more involvement from the parent, especially at first. The goal is to reduce the amount of TV the children are used to and to introduce other activities that can take the place of TV-watching. Eventually, they will be able to entertain themselves more easily with what might be more worthwhile activities.

2.) TV Limits

Now the children are watching half the amount of the "too much TV" they were watching before. This might still be more than you want them watching.

Explain to them a new rule that will go into effect the next day. You can choose to give them a certain time of day (from ___ time to ____ time) that is available for TV watching, with no watching at other times, or you can set up a system of earning the TV time. For example, if you want the children outside more often, tell them they can watch half an hour of TV after they play outside for half an hour. Every time they ask to watch TV, tell them yes...half an hour's worth of TV after they play outside half an hour. Alternatively, if you really want your children to practice their writing, tell them they can watch another TV or DVD segment after they complete a certain number of pages in their writing workbook or whatever activity you choose.

A lot of people like to use the Bingo Chips method for this: You give each child a specified number of chips and tell them it takes "X" amount of chips to buy TV time. Chips may be taken away for infractions like talking back, whining, not turning off the TV when told, etc. Chips can also be earned by finishing chores or choosing not to watch TV at all one day. If they have enough chips, they can watch TV. If not, they can't.

 

Don't forget to explain a few ground rules that you want to apply to this method. For example, what if the child has enough chips to buy TV time but it's time for family dinner? What if the child wants to save up chips to watch a special show that is past his or her bedtime? It will be immensely helpful to know the answers to these questions ahead of time.