Mom Talk: TV Time

This week's Mom Talk is brought to you by Upper Moreland-Willow Grove Patch Moms' Council members and Patch contributors Heather Greenleaf and Ruth Z. Deming.

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TV was once a rare commodity to be found in the American household.

In 1959, a total of 5,749,000 televisions were sold in the U.S., bringing the cumulative total from sales dating back to 1939 to 67,145,000 units, according to tvhistory.tv.

According to a 2009 Nielsen’s Television Audience Report, there are 54 percent of homes in the U.S. that have three televisions or more—making the number of homes with TVs across the country 114.5 million.

And, of course, TVs aren’t just tethered to the home—they’ve become mobile.

TVs can be found on the back of car seats, on buses, at airports, and, now, on your mobile device.

So, with so much media available today, the Moms Council was asked whether or not TV time for children should be limited or monitored?

 “I let my kids watch TV,” Greenleaf said. “But there are mommies out there that don’t.”

She said that some parents are against watching television altogether.

According to KidsHealth.org, the average American infant and toddler watches a screen for about two hours a day.

The number doubles once the children reach ages 8 to 18, when they spend nearly four hours in front of the TV and two additional hours on the computer and playing video games.

Knowing that it’s practically inevitable that children will be in front of a screen interacting or watching some form of media during the day, the Moms Council suggest it might be best to guide your children in what they watch.

“I think it depends on what programming you choose,” Greenleaf said, asking, “Are you going to choose junk programming or going to do the Sprout stuff, or the PBS stuff or even the Disney Channel?”

Greenleaf said that there is a lot of educational programming available for children to experience. In fact, in 1990, Congress enacted the Children’s Television Act, which increased the amount of educational programming available to children.

Deming said that, as young adults turn to parents, their attitudes change about TV.

She said that upon her visits to her daughter and her husband’s home, the TV was always on for background noise. However, when they had a child, Deming said that the TV is almost never on.

Deming did say that allowing your children to watch a little TV (preferably educational programming) would greatly benefit the mom.

“I was a single parent … and in the afternoon, when Sesame Street came on, I would lay down and nap while they were watching,” she said.

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For another take on family television programming, check out this .