Cactus Village Community

Don’t Let Your Family Go Down the Tube - Use TV Wisely CAO

Jul 07, 2003

Don?’t Let Your Family Go Down the Tube-
Use Television Wisely
By CAO Karen Freund

Set limits on what children can watch. Homework and meals with the family take priority.
Watch TV with your children and talk about what each of you like and didn?’t like.
Set an example. Carefully choose your own programs and the amount of time you watch television.
Make one room a TV-Free Zone?—a comfortable place to read, talk and listen, with no television set.
Don?’t use TV as a babysitter. Encourage children to spend their free time in activities such as sports, hobbies, playing with friends, or reading rather than sitting in front of the tube.
Limit video games to a half-hour a day. Use a kitchen timer. Look for TV programs that encourage kids to do something positive?—build a playhouse, start a hobby, help out at home, volunteer to help someone. Look for TV programs that relate to a book, some?­thing your child is studying, or an experience from your own child?­hood or that of a relative.
Don?’t use TV as a reward or punishment.
If you find a TV ad or program offensive, write or call the sponsor and the station.