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What "Just Being a Kid" Means Today
The Sedentary Life of Children
By Rae Pica
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), when television viewing becomes habitual for children ages birth to 3, it's a practice that lasts. In fact, 2-year-olds who watch too much TV are two and a half times more likely to watch an excessive amount by the time they're 6.
As appalling as these statistics are, they're unfortunately not all that surprising. Many childcare situations have TVs available. Children home alone after school often opt for the company of the box – and there's no one to tell them they can't. Also, as mentioned, parents are busy these days. The television keeps children "busy, happy and good" – in other words, out of adults' hair.
And watching television is a national pastime, with Americans in general spending 40 percent of their leisure time in front of the tube. By the time the average person hits age 70, he or she will have spent about seven to 10 years watching TV. Children do follow the lead of the role models in their lives.
In 1999, the AAP issued a policy statement suggesting that children under age 2 not be allowed to watch TV because "babies and toddlers have a critical need for direct interactions with parents and other significant care givers for healthy brain growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional and cognitive skills."
While parents can certainly see the validity of this statement, many of them were nonetheless displeased with the guidelines. They wondered how they were supposed to make dinner if their infants and toddlers weren't allowed to watch TV.
But as Dr. Michael Rich, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital in Boston, points out, parents still had to cook dinner 50 years ago, and they had no television to provide a distraction. "It's so enmeshed in our society and our patterns that we don't have the imagination to know how else to do it," he says.