Turn Off Your TV

Did you know that 99% of all families have at least one TV in their home? Forty-five percent of these families have three or more TVs. At first this blew my mind, then I counted the TVs in my house and was floored! We have three that are currently in use and three more that will be in use this time next year (we are doing some renovating and still moving in so three of the rooms with TVs are not currently set up). This next statistic really boggled my mind. Fifty-six percent of all 8 to 16-year-old's have a TV in their bedrooms. In our family, we never allowed our children to have a TV in their room until they were out of High School. You may want to sit down for this next Statistic. Th average person watches 40 hours of TV per year. That's a total of 960 hours a year. Children spend 1,023 hours a year watching TV. They only spend 900 hours a year in school. Want to know why children are desensitized to violence? Maybe it's because they will see 200,000 violent acts, including16,000 murders, on TV before they turn 18-years-old. Are you aware of the fact that 70% of all TV shows include sexual content, with an average of five sexual scenes per hour? What does this mean? Why should we be concerned? On the average, 38.5 minutes per week (20,020 minutes a year) is spent on meaningful conversation between a parent and their child. What an eye-opener. When I read this, I had to share this with others. It's scary that TV is being made into a BIG part of shaping our children. It scares me to think that children will see 200,000 acts of violence and then witness it for real and think it's not a big deal. Is it any wonder that our children are growing up too fast and not mature enough to handle what the world throws at them. If they are seeing actors being killed off one show and turning up on another show a week later, then how are they suppose to really get that death is final? How are they suppose to tell the difference between whats real and what is pretend? With all of the "Reality" TV they are watching how can they be expected to know that the reality is mostly exaggerated to make "good television"? Maybe it's just me. If you are as concerned as I am, there are six things you can do. First, turn off your TV. Second, decide on TV-free times of the week and stick to them. Third, remove TVs from your bedrooms and kitchen areas. The only place you should have a TV is the Family Room or Living Room. Fourth, make a list of activities to do in place of watching TV. You could read a book, ride a bike, plant a garden, get some of those household chores done, go swimming, the possibilities are endless. Fifth, Stop using TV as a reward for good behavior, good grades or other things you would reward yourself or your children for. Sixth, When you do watch TV, be more selective. Watch things with a positive message; something educational or inspirational. Lets face it head on. We complain we don't have enough time to get things done that we need or want to get done (I'm guilty of this too) but we always have time for our favorite TV shows. Are you part of the 70% that falls into this category? By just giving up TV one day a week, we can exercise the recommended amount necessary for healthy living. We can read 20 books. We could find time to complete those projects we've been putting off. We could spend that extra time with our loved ones. Instead or watching reruns of our favorite characters lives, we could be living our own lives. Let's get into the game and stop being spectators in our own lives. One day our children will be grown and we will have missed them growing up because we were busy watching TV characters grow up. Just something to think about this Monday morning...